The Pool of Time
by AlaskanAppaloosa
Summary: Jedi. Rebels. Resistance. The three main protagonists from each of the Star Wars movie trilogies are plucked from their respective time periods to work together on their most dire mission yet. Some will battle their worst fears. Others must repair past wrongs. And still others will be given a shot at redemption.
1. Chapter 1

Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, places, most of the back stories, or any of the Star Wars movies or TV series. I'm not making any money off of them, either; I'm simply doing this for the fun of it. So don't come after me, Disney!

* * *

OOO

 **Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away…**

 **It is a period of galactic confusion. Young Luke Skywalker, last of the Jedi line and ace pilot responsible for the destruction of the notorious Death Star, has disappeared, along with Leia Organa, former Princess of Alderaan, and cocky flyboy smuggler Han Solo.**

 **Meanwhile, Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, and Anakin's beautiful wife, Padmé Amidala, face a puzzling new dilemma: they have been abruptly thrust onto an unfamiliar planet, with no logical explanation in sight. In addition, Obi-Wan seems to have become...** _ **younger**_ **.**

 **In the midst of this muddle, no one seems to notice the young scavenger, renegade Stormtrooper, and star Resistance pilot who seem to have slipped in while everyone was distracted…**

The _Millennium_ _Falcon_ hovered motionlessly, surrounded by the black emptiness of space. The encompassing stars remained frozen around the immobile ship as small pinpoints of light— cold, distant, and unblinking. Princess Leia Organa stood at the cockpit window, slamming her palms down onto the dashboard in front of her.

"What the…"

Her friend Luke Skywalker appeared at her side, brushing his blond bangs out of his eyes as he stared out in bewilderment as well. He turned to the man in the pilot's chair in disbelief. "What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything, I swear!" Han Solo pushed himself out of his seat, arms thrown out in an air of frustration. "It's not my fault! Why is everything my fault?" He stood, running a hand through his scruffy hair, joining the two in a stunned surveyance of the celestial bodies around them.

The large, furry creature beside him let out a gargled roar.

"No, I did not, Chewie! I swear I didn't touch a thing! Why couldn't _Luke_ have done something clumsy, _which is not unusual_ , and flipped a couple of switches?"

"Wha—Hey!"

Han ignored his friend's indignant protest and bent to switch on the navicomputer, punching the keys in viciously as though playing an especially fervid piece on a piano. The screen blinked in annoyance, informing the three friends that there was _nothing wrong_ with the navigational coordinates.

"I never punched those coordinates in!" Solo protested, turning to his skeptical companions. "These are points for somewhere on the very outskirts of the Outer Rim. Don't tell me we jumped all the way from the rebel base on Hoth to here in a split second!" He gave the navicomputer an irritable smack. "Because that's what just happened."

"That's impossible," Luke scoffed. "No ship can travel that distance in that time. Hoth is thousands of lightyears from the Outer Rim; it would take weeks to get this far out."

Chewie howled in agreement.

"And yet here we are," Han drawled.

Leia waved a hand impatiently. "I don't care where we are, or even how we got here. Just get us out of here, Han!"

The former smuggler didn't drop his snide tone as he skirted around her to fall into his pilot's chair once again. "Sure thing, Your Highness." He began punching commands into the computer again.

Luke turned back to peering out of the cockpit window, biting his bottom lip thoughtfully. "I wonder where we are."

Han was forced to duck under Chewbacca's furry outstretched arm in order to glance over at his friend. "The navigational coordinates say we're in someplace called the Ahch-To system." He paused, frowning. "I've never heard of that system before."

Leia sighed, wondering _how_ _on Alderaan_ she ever became mixed up with these two idiots. "And that's important because…?"

Han ran a hand through his scruffy hair again, muttering. "I've spent a whole lot of time in the Outer Rim sectors of the galaxy, sweetheart, and this certain system has never popped up _once_ , even in passing."

Leia's lips tensed at the patronizing nickname, pressing together in a solid, formidable line. She leaned across the console: "Who cares?" The princess began pacing, muttering something under her breath that sounded a lot like ' _laser brains'_.

It's almost as though this place is supposed to be a secret," Luke spoke up softly, finally surfacing from his philosophical ruminations on the stars. "As though someone or some _thing_ meant to keep it hidden." He turned to glance back at the others, his crystalline blue eyes wide. "And we were meant to find it."

"Oh please," Han reclined in his chair with a scoff. "Don't start telling us this is 'fate'. I've had quite enough of that Jedi hocus-pocus and 'everything happens for a reason' stuff." A notification blinked up on the screen, and Han peered at it. "Afraid getting back to the base is going to be a bit of a problem, Your Worship. We're critically low on fuel."

"What? Since when?" Leia shoved him out of the way to stare at the screen in disbelief.

"I told you it was a bad habit to wait until the last drop to get a fuel-up," Luke remarked. "Procrastination never has the conclusion we hope for."

"Some good solid advice from your old Jedi friend? A lot of good it did him." Solo scowled, flipping a couple switches briskly. The _Millennium Falcon_ pinged in response, maneuvering into a nose-dive position.

"What are you doing?" Leia demanded, as the ship began its descent towards the nondescript blue-grey planet below them.

"Landing," The smuggler replied smoothly. "Looks like we're going to be here for a while, whether we like it or not."

* * *

The surface of the planet of Ahch-To consisted nearly completely of the tossing waves of a restless sea, with a few jagged rock formations jutting out here and there, repeatedly lashed by the waves. Here, among the creatures who called the cheerless mass of scattered rocks and brackish water home, by far the majority spent their days under the foaming waves of the ocean. The few who did not possess flippers, fins, or aquatic respiration lived in isolation, scattered across the planet's rugged islands.

Underneath the broody, overcast sky, one particular island sat bravely amid the battering seaspray; Ahch-To Island itself. Through the thick, curling mist hovering about the island's peak, three figures stood on a wind-buffeted overhang, their clothing snapping vigorously in the breeze.

Obi-Wan Kenobi tilted his head, taking in the crash of the waves against the shore, the bitter salty tang in the air, and the sodden clouds above before turning back to his apprentice.

"All right, Anakin. What did you do?"

Anakin Skywalker spun from squinting into the mist to turn to his master in protest. "Nothing, Master! I've been behaving myself, just as you said. Why is everything my fault?" he demanded.

The older Jedi sighed, and rubbed his face wearily. "Because it usually is…"

Anakin decided to ignore his Master's pointed comment, and instead returned to surveying their surroundings, scratching his head in perplexity. It wasn't much to look at, however, and Anakin's eye halted at by far the most attractive aspect of the landscape—Padmé Amidala.

His voice softened into a low, near-mumbling tone, as though he were merely talking to himself. "One moment we're chasing assassins on Kortzoa, the next—bam. We're here. Padmé wasn't even with us then, but she's here now!"

Of course, the young apprentice couldn't complain about _that_ part; he was quite happy to be reunited with his loving wife since they were separated soon after their secret marriage a few weeks ago.

He finally turned from gazing with a sappy expression at her face to look at his mentor reluctantly: there was a far bigger elephant in the room to discuss.

"And then we have… well… _you_ , Master." Anakin began slowly, as though he were addressing a potentially dangerous animal or attempting to disarm a particularly tricky explosive; there was no telling how his master was going to react.

"Yes? What about me?" Obi-Wan glanced at his apprentice quizzically. He noticed the hesitant way in which his padawan addressed him, as well as the considerable size Padmé's eyes had widened to—they were both staring at him. Bewildered, he glanced down at himself for any clue as to what they were so concerned about. Had he just come down with the symptoms for a deadly disease? Turned a bright shade of purple? Perhaps he'd just sprouted another head?

The latter seemed the most likely of the three, as Anakin appeared to be struggling to control a bizarre urge to laugh. Kenobi sighed inwardly, wondering what new development Anakin had discovered this time in which to ridicule him by.

He tilted his head back, addressing the weepy sky above wearily. "All right, you two. Spit it out."

Padmé was the first to speak, fiddling with the japor snippet pendant around her neck. "Well… Obi-Wan…" she began uncomfortably, "It—you look… young."

Anakin burst out laughing and nearly fell over backward, slipping on the mist-dusted surface of the island as he exaggerated his mirth. Padmé shot him a strained look before continuing.

"...Very… um… young."

"What?" Obi-Wan looked from one to the other, desperate for an explanation.

Anakin was trying but failing miserably to talk while laughing. "Well—it's just as Padmé said—Master—it seems you—you've become—"

Obi-Wan threw his hands in the air in exasperation, cutting the teen off. "—Younger? I don't—what do you—what does that even mean? Are you saying that I'm a—a young child with a man's body, because _I_ don't notice anything different!" He thrust his hands out, turning them over as he eyed both sides of them suspiciously. "A little clarification would be nice!"

At the mental image procured by this bizarre suggestion, however, Anakin went berserk again. Once again, Padmé was forced to speak for him. "No, no," she put in hastily, "Not _that_ young. You just look…" She took in a breath, deciding it was best to put it bluntly. "Well, you look exactly as you did when I first met you on Naboo, Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan peered at her, desperately trying to figure out if this was some dumb joke between her and Anakin. However, he knew that the Senator was not the type to tease him, and saw what could only have been genuine astonishment in her eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck. "But that was ten years ago," he said faintly.

"Exactly!" Padmé nodded, her elaborate braided hairstyle bobbing up and down in agreement.

Anakin inhaled a gasping breath, and managed to choke out, "You've—you've got the padawan braid again."

Startled, Kenobi's hand immediately reached up to feel his head. Sure enough, his hair was tied back in the traditional braid and ponytail of a Jedi padawan. Panicked, his fingers dropped to run along his chin— his beard was gone, too. Eyes wide, he turned back to Anakin and Padmé. Then his expression changed rapidly to that of bewildered irritation.

"I'm still your Master— don't be getting any ideas, Anakin! I don't _feel_ any younger!" He paused, and added thoughtfully, "Except more vigorous, maybe…"

Anakin nodded solemnly, thoroughly enjoying himself. He raised one eyebrow with a wide smirk. "So does that mean we're the same age now?" He was taking this new development _significantly_ better than his master was.

His master stared back at him, stunned for a moment, before wagging a finger at him, "What? No! Absolutely _not!_ And besides, even if I _were_ somehow ten years younger, I would still be six year older than you— I was twenty-five when we first met!"

Anakin just snorted again. This was the most fun he'd had since Obi-Wan fell into a pit of Slime-Barfing Juggerwatts on Sarafar the week before. He smirked again, cocking his head to one side as he continued to study his master.

"I just can't take you seriously anymore now that you're the same age as I am."

"We are _not_ the same age!"


	2. Chapter 2

A cascade of stones slithered down the side of the ledge above, interrupting any continuation of the argument. Both Jedi whirled around, lightsabers ignited and brandished menacingly. The culprit, Finn, scrambled to his feet, throwing his palms out defensively to show he was weaponless.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Easy! I come in peace!" He yelped in alarm as the Jedi jumped at him.

Anakin was suddenly aggressive, advancing on the young man threateningly. "Who are you? Are you a _spy?_ "

Finn's face paled. "A spy? Why would I be a spy?" he stammered.

"Are you a native here?" Anakin continued ruthlessly. "Tell us where we are, quick!"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan shot his apprentice a disapproving look. "Can't you see he's unarmed? Lower your blade." Anakin hesitated for a moment then obeyed, lowering the weapon but without de-igniting it.

Finn exhaled in a sigh of relief. "Thanks," he breathed. Beads of water trembled on his forehead, though whether from mist or anxious perspiration it wasn't clear. He wiped them away with the sleeve of his jacket. "And no, I'm not a native," He laughed a little nervously. "I don't have any more clue as to where we are than you guys do, we only just appeared here a few minutes ago!"

Obi-Wan tilted his head to one side quizzically. "We?"

A derisive snort came from above, and two more heads emerged over the side of the ledge, annoyed. Poe Dameron rolled his eyes as he addressed his friend below him. "Great going, buddy. What happened to 'lay low until we find more about our situation'?"

Rey, the young scavenger beside him, felt the need to defend her friend. "It wasn't his fault he slipped!"

Poe just scoffed again, and jumped down from the overhang to proffer his hand boldly to the Jedi. "Poe Dameron. Resistance pilot."

Obi-Wan hesitated for a moment, regarding the young man's hand with a wary expression. Then he de-ignited his lightsaber, taking Poe's hand firmly. "Obi-Wan Kenobi," He inclined his head courteously to all of the newcomers.

Rey slid down the incline after her friend. "Poe, why would you tell them you're a Resistance pilot?" she demanded. "That's practically asking for them to turn you over to the First Order!"

"Are you kidding, Rey?" Poe turned to her with a wide grin. "These guys are Jedi, look at their lightsabers! Jedi have always been on the side of the Resistance. "

"Jedi?" Finn burst out. "No way! I thought they were a myth!"

Anakin's jaw twitched in annoyance. "Do we _look_ like myths to you? What planet are you from, anyway, where you think Jedi are a _myth?_ "

Obi-Wan cut across his apprentice's irritation, addressing Poe in polite confusion. "I'm sorry, _Resistance?_ "

"I _told_ you they weren't to be trusted, Poe!" Rey exclaimed wildly. "They don't know what the Resistance is!"

Poe looked from one Jedi to the next, suddenly bewildered. "But I thought… _wait a minute_." He cocked his head to the side, raising one eyebrow. "You said your name was _Obi-Wan Kenobi?_ Didn't you die like thirty years ago?"

Obi-Wan looked just as baffled. "Excuse me… _die?_ "

"Yeah, Darth Vader—" Poe paused. Something told him not to finish that sentence. He turned to study the other two, and the realization as to what appeared to be happening began to settle on everyone at the same time.

Rey shook her head. "No way," she whispered.

Padmé finally spoke up, tapping her finger against her lips in deliberation. "So what you mean to say is that… you three… are from the future?"

Poe nodded slowly. "Or you guys are from the past. Whichever way you want to look at it."

"No way," Anakin echoed Rey, scoffing at the very idea. "That's impossible."

"Nothing is impossible with the Force," Obi-Wan murmured softly. "It seems we have all been brought here for a reason."

Finn rubbed his arm fervently. "This is so weird…"

Padmé was the first to speak after a long pause. "Well… suppose we look around a bit and try to figure out what in the galaxy is going on?"

At that moment a ship materialized out of the mist above them. The _Millennium Falcon_ hovered above their heads for a moment, before touching down on a suitably flat area higher up on the island.

Luke leaned over the cockpit dashboard in surprise. "Hey— there are people down there!"

Leia came to his side, tapping her thumbnail against her teeth thoughtfully. "Perhaps they're natives…"

"Well, let's hope they're friendly," Han remarked darkly as he maneuvered the _Falcon_ to rest on the rocks, like some freakishly large bird. The others climbed up the side of the incline to meet the three friends and Wookie as they exited the ship via the gangplank. The two groups eyed one another suspiciously, each fingering the weapons at their sides.

Finally, Han broke the silence. "Uh… hi." Unsure whether the newcomers spoke the same language or not, he ran a hand through his dark hair, making it appear even wilder.

Obi-Wan nodded in a friendly manner, dropping his hand ever so slightly from the lightsaber at his belt. "Hello."

Luke craned his neck, taking in the number of people standing behind the Jedi. They didn't _look_ unfriendly, but one never could tell. "We're just travelers passing this way; we'll be going soon," he said cautiously.

"Oh." Obi-Wan didn't know what he had expected from the newcomers, but he would have liked for them to at least have had a bit of information on the curious situation they all were in. However, the three friends and Wookie seemed to have as little clue as to what was going on as the rest of them did.

There was another awkward silence, which was broken this time by Anakin, peering behind the four at the _Falcon_. "You came in that piece of garbage? You must be either really brave, or really stupid."

Luke tensed; this was not the best way _at all_ to start of on the right foot between the two parties. He heard Leia give an almost inaudible sigh as Han stiffened.

"I'll have you know she'll make point five past lightspeed," the smuggler retorted heatedly. "She may not look like much, but the special modifications Chewie and I—"

Poe interrupted him, pausing in the act of shoving his hair out of his face in shock. "Hey… I recognize you…" he gasped, addressing Leia. " _General Organa?_ You're so… _young!_ "

Leia bristled, arching one eyebrow skeptically. "I'm sorry?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't judge a lady by her size, _sir_ ," she said forcefully. "But I think you have me confused with someone else; I'm not a general. I'm just Princess Leia of Alderaan."

She paused, and a darkness passed over her face for a fleeting moment. "Or I _was_ ," she spat bitterly.

"That's General Organa, leader of the Resistance?" Finn burst out. "Rey, Poe, they must be from the past too!"

"Hold your blaster fire— _from the past?_ " Han demanded. "What is all this?"

"I already told you, I'm not a general!" Leia snapped. "And I'm definitely not a leader of this _Resistance,_ whatever that is. What even is it, a ripoff of the Rebellion?"

"Nevermind," Poe said quickly. He turned to his companions eagerly. "This is crazy! What are all these famous legends doing here on this island with us? Think of it: General Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi… and he must be Luke Skywalker!" He gestured to Luke wildly.

"I'm famous?" Luke blinked. "What for?"

"Blowing up the Death Star, duh!" Poe enthused. "And when—" He stopped, reddening.

"There's more?" Han laughed, ruffling Luke's hair. " _This_ kid? I mean, no offence," he turned to the teen hastily, "That _was_ pretty cool when you saved the entire Rebellion and all that. But most of the time," he chuckled, "He can't even save himself from falling when he trips over his own feet." Han, in his usual oblivious way, failed to see the humiliation that flooded his friend's face, or Luke's struggle to find an instance to prove him wrong.

Luke was saved from further dwelling on the embarrassing moment when Rey answered Han's question, putting her hands on her hips. "Wouldn't that sort of change the future if we told you?"

"You already told the princess lady she was going to be the general of some Resistance," Anakin said impatiently, gesturing to Leia.

"My mistake," Poe said, suddenly looking a bit nervous. "I don't think it changes that much anyway… I hope."

Finn fidgeted nervously. "So… does anyone have any clue as to why all of us randomly appeared here?"

"Perhaps I can help with that," a voice remarked calmly, and the group turned to see Qui-Gon Jinn standing beside them, his body surrounded by a wavering blue halo of light.


	3. Chapter 3

Obi-Wan stepped away from his former master in shock. "Master…" he stammered, "You're... _alive?_ "

"Well no, not exactly," Qui-Gon examined his luminescent body in surprise, as though having forgotten that he existed as a shimmery ghost now. "It's a long story, and it'll take too much time to explain. Time," he remarked with a mysterious smile, "is of the essence at the moment, you know."

"Uh… no, we don't," Finn confessed, almost apologetically.

"We're all ears whenever you decide to explain things to us," Leia remarked sarcastically, placing her hands on her hips.

"Ah… wait just a second," Qui-Gon held up a hand, glancing around crossly. "They should be here any moment now…" Just as he said this, he was joined by two more shimmering images: the Force auras of respected Jedi masters Yoda and Mace Windu.

"Master Yoda!" Padmé exclaimed, recognizing the small, wrinkly green Jedi.

"And Master Windu!" Anakin added, indicating the tall, severe-looking man beside him. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"A great disturbance in the Force have we felt," Yoda announced solemnly.

"A dangerous young Sith has obtained a knowledge that could threaten all of our very existences," Windu rumbled gravely.

"It could shake the foundations of the past and change everything as we know it," Qui-Gon clasped his hands together grimly.

"A simple 'hello' would have done just fine," Poe muttered under his breath.

"'Shake the foundations of the past'?" Anakin repeated. "What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

Qui-Gon turned to him. "It means, young Skywalker, that even your destinies in the past are now vulnerable to this new weapon. Nothing is certain anymore, not even what has already come to pass."

"Wait— _Skywalker?_ " Luke stepped forward impulsively. "You're a Skywalker?"

"Yeah…" Anakin eyed the other warily. "Anakin Skywalker."

"Anakin…" Luke tasted the word, rolling it over his tongue as he made the connection. "My father's name was Anakin. Don't tell me this guy is my _father!_ "

"No, no— of course he isn't," Windu spluttered; it was quite obvious he was a terrible liar.

"I have a son?" Anakin burst out. "How?!"

"Qui-Gon! Given permission to reveal that information you were not!" Yoda jabbed up at the taller Jedi with his gnarled walking stick.

"They would have found out eventually," Qui-Gon waved a hand carelessly. "Better to get it over with now."

"I can't believe it," Luke continued, shaking his head. "This kid is my dad!"

"You got a problem with that?" Anakin bristled.

"No, I was just expecting you to be… older," Luke confessed reluctantly. "And more… uh… heroic-looking. Manly."

Anakin's face flushed a deep maroon color, and he seemed to swell as though ready to explode. " _Manly_ , huh? Well, you're not exactly the picture of heroism yourself, now are you? By the looks of it, you could be fresh off of the moisture farms on Tatooine." Anakin knew plenty of farmers from his desert home planet, and none of them were anything _close_ to warriors; this was one of the worst insults he could come up with at the moment.

It seemed to work, for Luke immediately reddened as well. "So what if I am?" he demanded, stammering a bit.

Anakin's eyes widened. "So… you actually _are_ from Tatooine… Ha!" He laughed, his face splitting into a wide smirk.

Leia leaped forward. "So what if he is?" she repeated heatedly; she despised this arrogant young man already, and felt immensely sorry for Luke for having a jerky idiot like that for a dad. "It's none of _your_ business where he's from!"

"Yeah, it is!" Anakin gestured wildly. He's my son! Ohhhh… this is just too weird to think about…" He smacked his face with his hand wearily.

"Now look what you've done," Windu turned to Qui-Gon crossly. "They'll be too caught up in family affairs to pay attention to the mission."

"We can focus on the mission!" Anakin protested, shooting Luke a glare, as though it were all _his_ fault they were related. "What does it matter that he's my son, anyway?"

Luke flinched, looking hurt. He opened his mouth as though to say something, but then shut it quickly, staring down at his feet.

"I should certainly hope so," Windu replied. "For your sakes, as well as the sake of the entire galaxy."

Yoda nodded gravely. "Work together to complete this mission, you must. Imperative it is for you a team to be."

"So… what's the mission?" Rey queried. She was eager to begin, but also a bit nervous. A mission! With legendary heroes! That definitely wasn't something the average Jakkuian scavenger got the opportunity to do. Even Force-sensitive ones.

The three Force ghosts shared a look, as though silently urging the others to do the explaining; the group was reminded of a game children often played called 'Not It!'. Finally, Qui-Gon sighed, and turned back to the others. He took a deep breath, and began.

"In the far, uninhabited reaches of the galaxy, there is a small planet known simply as Time. Very few know of its existence, and even those few do not dare to venture there because of the dangers that it holds. Amidst the mist and depthless caverns of its desolate landscape, there is a single pool called the Pool of Time." He looked around at the gathered faces with narrowed eyes. "It is said that whoever enters this pool has the power to surpass the usual laws of physics and space… and travel through Time itself."

He paused with his chin in the air as though for dramatic effect.

Finn didn't know whether he was supposed to clap, or gasp, or… _something_ , so he just shifted, clearing his throat uncomfortably. "Whoa."

"For many years the secret was kept safe," Master Windu spoke up, "As only the wisest of the wise were ever given knowledge of it. It was only recently that we discovered that the planet was not quite as safe as we had thought."

"Know of this planet, the Sith do." Yoda rasped.

At this news, all of the Jedi looked grim. Even those who didn't quite understand what was happening fell silent, feeling the obvious tension in the atmosphere.

"How they discovered it is anyone's guess," Qui-Gon continued. "But now we are all in considerable danger, for the Sith master has directed his apprentice to the planet in order to make use of its time-traveling abilities."

"Know little of the nature of their plan, we do." Yoda shook his head. "But sure we are, nothing good come of it will."

Windu straightened, folding his arms across his chest. "That is why we have brought all of you here— because the ramifications of this single Sith apprentice could quite possible affect every single one of you."

"You want us to stop this Sith apprentice," Padmé said softly.

Windu nodded. "You are correct."

There was a long silence, in which the only noise was the crashing of the waves on the side of the island below them. Then Poe struck his hands together briskly. "Welp! All right, when do we get started?"

Qui-Gon beamed, and clapped the young man on the back. "That's the spirit, Dameron." He shot a smug look in the other two Force ghosts' direction. "See, I told you they'd take to the challenge easily enough. They're all hardy, impulsive young men and women; youths like that _thrive_ on constant peril. I daresay they'll think of this as merely another exciting adventure."

"Oh boy, I can hardly wait," Han muttered.

"As for a launching of this enterprise…" Windu intoned with an equal amount of non-enthusiasm, "Uh...Preferably sooner than later."

"Well, we're all here, so we're about as ready as we'll ever be," Leia sighed.

Anakin punched the air. "Let's do this thing!" A smattering of half-hearted laughter indicated his companions' varying degrees of agreement.

Obi-Wan jumped forward desperately. "Wait, but _why_ , Master, did you have to make me look younger?" he moaned. "I could complete the mission _just as well_ ten year older! I'm not _that_ old!"

Qui-Gon shrugged with a mysterious smile as Anakin sniggered. "I don't know. I thought it'd be funny." Anakin burst out laughing, and the corners of the former Jedi master's lips twitched. "See, your apprentice seems to find it humorous." At his old padawan's groan of protest, he added, "Don't worry, you will be be returned to your proper age once the mission is finished."

Obi-Wan groaned again, and rubbed his temples as though he had just developed a major headache.

"If you ever finish the mission," Windu muttered darkly. He had intended to keep the pessimistic comment to himself, but everyone heard him anyway.

"Caution, a word of," Yoda said, eyeing the multiple faces before him; some excited, eager to begin, others apprehensive. "As it seems, nothing is. Test every one of you, this mission will. Trust one another you must, or fail you will. On your shoulders the fate of the galaxy rests." His craggy green face scrunched into wrinkles as he narrowed his eyes at the group.

"Divided, you must not be."


	4. Chapter 4

Inside the _Millennium Falcon_ , Han waved everyone on board impatiently. "Right this way, princesses and ambassadors and Jedi and whatnot," he droned, "Welcome aboard the the fastest ship in the galaxy, the _Millennium Falcon_. She may not look like much now, but she's got it where it counts."

"Just be sure to fasten your seatbelts," Leia remarked drily behind his back.

Anakin continued to glance around the ship in disdain. "Can't believe we agreed to ride in this piece of trash. By the looks of this thing, we'll all be floating home soon enough, just you wait."

"We should be grateful that we have a ship to use at all," Obi-Wan frowned. He pulled his hand away from touching the wall, grimacing as a layer of grime crumbled onto his fingers. Brushing it from his hands hurriedly, he delicately ignored his apprentice's pointed smirk.

Finn, Rey, and Poe, in contrast, were running their fingertips along the corridors in a kind of awe.

"I can't believe how much _cleaner_ it was back then," Rey remarked, drawing a smiley face in the layer of dust that had settled on a computer console near the lounge area. "Or, I guess, _now_."

"That I have to disagree with," Poe tapped his chin, eyeing the dirty grey color of the walls as he bent to scrawl ' _Poe D. was here'_ beside Rey's scribble. "Do he and his copilot take care of this thing… _at all?_ At least an annual maintenance sweep? The least Chewbacca could do is scoot his butt across this console." He clapped his hands together briskly and a cloud of dust exploded around them, making them all cough.

"If you think it looks like junk now, you should have seen it when Rey and I found it," Finn remarked, waving away the airborne debris. "You know, in the future."

"What are you three jabbering about?" Han was in a bad temper because Anakin and Obi-Wan had just found the cargo bay, and were examining crates and containers best left alone. "Hey, don't touch that, it's explosive!" he yelled over his shoulder at the two Jedi, but Anakin just lifted the glass tube he was holding up to eyelevel with a grin.

"What's in it?"

"None of your business, that's what!" Han muttered some rude obscenities under his breath as he turned to stalk off to the cockpit.

The moment he turned the corner, Rey leaned over to whisper in Finn's ear, "I just can't get used to him being so _young_. I mean, just look at him! His hair's so _dark!_ " She blushed, mumbling. "He's handsome, too."

Poe burst out laughing. "No wonder General Organa fell for him. And the General too, she's not such a bad looker either." He paused, looking thoughtful. "Is it weird that I now have a crush on someone 30 years older than I am?"

"Yes," Rey snapped, resentful of his amused reaction to her embarrassment. "She's _married_ , you pervert! Or she will be, anyway!"

"Relax, I was only joking." Poe drew a stuck-out tongue and crossed eyes on her dust smiley face, glancing up with a smirk.

Finn carefully angled himself between the two, disliking the way Poe's eyes danced when he met Rey's disdainful gaze. "This is kind of mind-blowing," He rubbed the back of his neck with a crooked smile. "We're going on a mission with a whole bunch of famous legends!"

"I know," Rey frowned down at the dusty console before her, at the ridiculous face that grinned goofily back at her. "I still can't really understand it. I mean, no offence, but none of us are really the hero type."

"I'm highly offended," Poe leaned back with a feigned huff of indignity. "Why, I'm one of the Resistance's top pilots!"

"And one of their biggest egos," Rey punched him in the arm irritably. "But really... I'm just a scavenger from Jakku, and Finn— why, Finn's a defective _stormtrooper,_ of all people!"

"Hehe, yeah," Finn laughed nervously, rubbing his upper arm as though it had been him Rey had punched, not Poe.

"Pfft. You're overthinking this way too much." Poe waved a flippant hand. "Think of this as an _honor_. It's an _honor_ to be considered important enough to history to be called to work alongside immortal legends like _Luke Skywalker_."

"Yeah, but…" Rey struggled for words to describe just exactly what she was feeling. It wasn't doubt, necessarily, but rather… _trepidation_. "It's such a big responsibility. There're a lot of… high-stake expectation. Aren't they risking a lot by sending all of us out together without so much as a… I don't know… _list of instructions?_ I mean, they literally just want us to ' _stop the Sith apprentice'_. Well, how are we supposed to _do_ that?"

Poe wagged a hand over his mouth in an exaggerated yawn, and Rey resisted the urge to punch him yet again. "Oh man, is that a Dejarik board?" He exclaimed suddenly, catching sight of the black and white pedestaled board in the middle of the lounge area. The Resistance pilot immediately trotted over to examine the game. "Bet you never had one of these babies as a stormtrooper, eh Finn? Come on then ole' buddy, I've gotta teach you how to play the best game in the history of mankind!"

"Um… okay…" With a last, uncertain glance at Rey, Finn turned to trail after him hesitantly.

Rey remained where she was, still staring down at the scrawled dust. On a sudden impulse she drew her hand across the console, swiping it clean.

* * *

Padmé circled the corridors, taking in every nook and cranny. The living spaces were a bit more primitive than what she was used to as the former Queen and now Senator of Naboo, but she wasn't concerned. Anakin sometimes referred to her as a 'desert flower', for she was delicate and sensitive, yet hardy and adaptable. One _had_ to be, when they were the wife of Anakin Skywalker, who was never able to sit still for a moment, always thirsty for the next adventure.

A loud squawk by her foot startled her out of her reveries, and she looked down to see a small Porg, one of the native fauna of the island of Ahch-To. The Force ghosts had dryly warned the group about a possible infestation of the creatures, but Padmé didn't see how an infestation of these adorable little things could be _bad_.

She bent down to pick it up and it squawked again, regarding her with enormous round eyes. "Well hello!" she addressed the creature good-naturedly. "What are you doing here?" As Anakin came up behind her, she held the little animal out to her husband. "Look, Ani. Isn't it cute?"

"Uh uh," Anakin agreed absently. To be honest, he thought the creatures were awfully annoying, but he didn't like to disagree with Padmé.

Padmé set the creature down again, where it waddled off happily to aggravate Han and Chewie in the cockpit. "You seem a bit distracted," she remarked casually.

Anakin blinked, and turned to her. "Do I?"

"What are you thinking about?" Padmé asked him.

Anakin slumped against the side of the corridor, shrugging. "Nothing really," he waved a hand dismissively. Then, after a moment, he continued. "Only about this time-traveling planet. I was just thinking about all the things you could do with one."

"It's terrible, isn't it?" Padmé leaned against the wall beside him. "What if this Sith apprentice goes somewhere he shouldn't, or _does_ something he shouldn't, and his actions affect a lot of important things?" She toyed with the end of her sleeve. "A lot of people could just… not exist anymore. And then many others would die, because no one was there to save them."

"But you could change the bad stuff too," Anakin murmured. "The stuff that never should have happened."

Padmé glanced over at him sharply, and studied his face. Suddenly, she knew exactly what was going through his mind at that moment. She caught her breath.

"Oh, Ani. I know you think about her a lot," she began, and Anakin cut across her.

"Every day." His hands were curled into fists at his sides, and his jaw twitched with tension.

Padmé paused uncomfortably, before placing a soft hand on his shoulder. "There was nothing you could have done about it," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Anakin."

"My mother shouldn't have died, Padmé," he insisted stubbornly. "She just shouldn't have."

"Ani, you can't blame yourself for something you had no control over," Padmé said gently.

Anakin just stared at the opposite wall, as though attempting to bore holes through the ship with his stare. Finally, he lifted his chin and turned to face her.

"But what if I did?" he began slowly. "What if I did have the power to control what happened that night?"

Padmé looked at him strangely, her eyes darting around his face, only to find that he was completely serious.

"Ani, no." she whispered. She pulled away from the wall in dismay at the message she read in his troubled eyes. "You can't mess with time, Anakin, it's too dangerous. No one is omniscient; you will never be able to see the full picture of things and how your actions could drastically affect someone else."

"But why shouldn't I?" Anakin demanded, his voice raising ever so slightly. "Why shouldn't I try to fix what was obviously a mistake?"

Padmé stepped forward to grab his hands impulsively. "Anakin, listen to me." She pleaded, gripping them tightly. "Please don't waste your life wishing you could change the past. It doesn't do anything but take away from the future. Don't be so caught up in your pain that you forget to _live_."

When Anakin refused to answer, she added, more softly, "I know it hurts a lot; I can see it in your eyes. And I… I _hate_ that." She lifted a hand to his cheek, eyes glittering with unshed tears. "But Anakin... we have to focus on this mission. The galaxy _needs_ us."

He pulled away from her coldly, turning his back. Padmé called out to him in a strong, unwavering voice as he began to walk away.

"I love you, Anakin."

Anakin paused, shoulders hunched. Then he turned back to glance at her. "I love you too, Padmé."

He stepped forward, arms outstretched, and she met him halfway, resting her head against his chest. The faint scent of smoke, perspiration, and a hint of singed clothing emanated from his Jedi uniform. She whispered into the coarse material, feeling the rhythmic throb of his heart beneath her cheek. "I'm here for you, Ani. I wish I could do something to ease your pain. To take it away."

He was silent for a moment, then pulled away just enough so that he could see her face. Her soft brown eyes searched his face anxiously, attempting to read— to understand— his thoughts, and he quickly concealed his feelings behind a wry smile. He hated worrying her.

Impulsively he leaned forward, catching her soft face in both of his worn, calloused hands. Padmé slid her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her level, and his skin tingling as a shiver shot down his spine. He could make out every detail of her quivering lashes. She could feel his warm breath by his ear, and her eyes fluttered shut as her body visibly relaxed, melting into his.

"Oh. Pardon my interruption."

Leia raised one eyebrow pointedly as the two jumped apart in alarm at the sudden intrusion. The Rebel princess continued on past them briskly until she reached the end of the corridor where she paused, one hand on the corner.

"Hope I'm not intruding on anything." She inclined her head to one side, lifting her chin slightly as she regarded the pair with an expression as cool and calculated as that of a metal statue's. "Do carry on." With a final curt nod, she turned the corner.

Anakin growled something under his breath after her, but Padmé caught his arm. "We'll have to be more careful," she whispered, then gave a nervous laugh. "Sometimes… I forget that we're not on Naboo anymore."

"Yeah." Anakin slid his hands into his robes bad-temperedly.

Padmé paused, and turned back to the young Jedi. "Oh, and Ani?"

"Yeah?" Anakin returned his gaze to hers hopefully.

"When was the last time you washed your uniform?"

* * *

"And stay out!" Han barked, shoving the last of the Porgs out of the cockpit. He yelled over his shoulder at his copilot, throwing his hands into the air in disgust. "Just look at this mess! Chewie, you're _sure_ they didn't chew up anything essential, right?"

Chewie roared unhappily.

"Your Dejarik board doesn't count as essential!" Han called back crossly. He shoved the mass of trash crowding the dashboard away and settled down in the pilot's chair to flip switches bad-temperedly.

Luke came up behind him. "Aren't we still critically low on fuel?" he queried, eyeing his friend. "I mean, even getting a really important and wacky mission doesn't change the reason we landed here in the first place."

Han seemed to realize this at the same time, and cursed loudly. Yet when he glanced over at the fuel gauge, he stopped in surprise. "What? Now it's saying we're full." He gave it a brisk flick for good measure, but the gauge did not change.

Luke peered over the smuggler's shoulder doubtfully. "I dunno… those Porg thingies chewed through an awful lot of wires… could be a malfunction."

"I don't think it's a malfunction," Han said suddenly, and Luke glanced up to follow his gaze. The Force ghosts were still watching them from the rocky overhang.

Han slammed his hands down onto the dashboard in front of him. "...But it _was_ the first time! Ha! I _knew_ I'd fuelled up before we left!" He began priming the ship for takeoff with a feverish sort of excitement, tapping in the hyperspace coordinates the Force ghosts had provided for their destination. "You two tried to blame it on _me,_ " he exclaimed almost giddily, "With all that talk of _procrastination_ and sop. Haha! I _told_ you it wasn't my fault!"

Luke rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "If I remember correctly, you tried to blame it on _me_ as well."

Han didn't answer, too pleased that his beloved ship was not grounded after all. Chewbacca entered the cockpit, still lamenting his ruined Dejarik board, and took his place as copilot beside Han.

The _Millennium Falcon_ started up with a roar… before giving a violent coughing fit and dying. Simultaneously Han and Chewie smacked their respective sides of the ship, and it jumped to life once again. The _Falcon_ lifted off and hovered for a moment, before Han and Chewie's guiding hands maneuvered it around to shoot out of the atmosphere. The Force ghosts continued to watch until it was out of sight; then one by one, the three flickered away.

"Good luck," Qui-Gon whispered softly, just before passing into the world beyond.


	5. Chapter 5

Obi-Wan sat in the chair beside the computer console in the _Falcon_ 's lounge area, poring studiously over a book of star charts. As he dogeared one particularly interesting page, he became aware of a presence hovering over him. He glanced up to see Rey standing in front of him, her hands fidgeting nervously at her sides.

"Um… yes?"

Rey blushed, and shifted uncertainly. "Hi."

"...Hello," Obi-Wan replied.

"Rey. My name's Rey," the girl breathed.

"Oh. I'm Obi-Wan—"

"Kenobi," Rey finished for him, and blushed again. "Yes, I know all about you— I mean," she stammered, "You're from the past, so of course everyone knows about you, not just me— I promise I'm not a stalker or anything!" Her eyes widened, desperate to prove this point.

"Right." Obi-Wan wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this. It was the weirdest feeling to know that this girl knew more about his life than he did himself. What sort of information about his future —her _past—_ did she possess? What sort of secrets about his fate— his _destiny—_ were she forced to conceal behind that young mask of innocence?

Rey was inwardly smacking herself, and it hurt quite a lot. Why did she have to make everything so complicated? Now he probably thought she was a creep or something for knowing so much about him.

She attempted to gather what was left of her dignity, adopting a careless, casual tone as she came to what she had been meaning to ask him in the first place. "Well anyway, I was just wondering, since you're supposed to be a great Jedi Master and all that… I was wondering… if you could perhaps teach me a bit of your umm… Jedi stuff?" Rey dug into her satchel for her lightsaber, producing it for the Jedi to see.

Kenobi started when he caught sight of the weapon. "Where did you get that?" He could feel that the girl was Force-sensitive, but she was obviously no Jedi.

Rey hesitated. "It… it called me," she replied reluctantly, afraid that the older man would find the weak explanation ridiculous. _Literally_. However, she was determined to continue. "I know I wasn't born a Jedi, but I _am_ Force-sensitive." She wrung her hands together anxiously, and took a deep breath.

"All my life, I've always wanted to be like the ancient Jedi warriors. I want to be able to protect people, and to bring peace and justice to the galaxy. I want to be able to _do_ something." Rey paused, and looked down at her feet. "I understand if you don't think it worth your time," she mumbled, "But if it's not too much to ask… all I want is a bit of training."

Afraid to look up to see his reaction, the girl didn't lift her gaze as she added hurriedly, "I don't want you to take me on as another of your apprentices or anything… I just want a few tips… you know, just to strengthen my skills a bit?"

Obi-Wan stared at her downcast face for a moment. While she appeared to be a talented, agreeable sort of kid, she was also an uncertain, insecure individual who had only begun to brush the surface of her powers in the Force. And Force knew he had enough on his mind already, what with the unpredictable nature of this mission, even _without_ considering his own apprentice, with whom he already had his hands quite full with. Besides, she was much too old to begin any sort of training in becoming a Jedi whatsoever.

But she wasn't asking to be a Jedi. She was simply asking for guidance. And if it were going to help her grow in her powers for good, Obi-Wan was not going to be the one to turn her down.

He reached out to place a hand on her arm. "Of course." He smiled kindly as Rey lifted her head. "But there's so much to learn, I don't even know where to begin. The training of a Jedi Knight can last long into adulthood. We, on the other hand, have a few days together at the most."

Rey returned his gaze with new enthusiasm, emboldened by his encouragement. "I want to learn to fight," she breathed.

 _Oh, brother._ Kenobi found it hard not to sigh out loud. All the youngsters these days wanted to do was go straight for the lightsabers. When would they learn that the life of a Jedi was about _negotiation_ , not _laceration_? They were supposed to _keep_ the peace, not destroy it. As if he didn't already have to tell that to Anakin twenty times a day.

"I'm not sure that's the best thing to begin with," he answered finally.

Suddenly, Rey was alight with passion. "Oh, but _I am_. I want to make sure I can beat Kylo Ren again if we ever do meet up for a second time, because knowing him he's probably incensed over being defeated by a beginner who'd never touched a lightsaber her entire life until that day but somehow picked it up and just _knew_ how to use it— against a powerful Sith, no less; needless to say, _he'll_ certainly be training harder for next time. And I just _know_ there's going to be a next time, so I just want to be prepared, that's all."

Obi-Wan hadn't thought the slender girl capable of uttering all of such a fervid speech in one enormous breath. He was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.

"Who's Kylo Ren?"

"Nobody." Rey said, and her cheeks flushed again, however not because of embarrassment this time, but because of hot fury.

"Nobody," Obi-Wan repeated skeptically.

"Yep, nobody." And that was the end of that.

Obi-Wan stood. "Alright, if you want to learn to defend yourself, I suppose now is as good a time as any." Rey ignited her lightsaber eagerly, narrowly missing impaling her own face in her excitement. He grimaced. "First order of business— don't be so careless when you ignite your blade."

"Right," Rey nodded, shamefaced. "Now what?"

"Let your instincts guide your hand," Kenobi replied. "I can teach you a few basic moves, and you'll have to practice them until they are like second nature to your subconscious. But overall, you must trust in the Force to guide your actions." His eyes followed her gaze to Finn, who had just entered the room and was now eyeing their exchange with evident anxiety. "Let go of _distractions_."

Finn, taking this to mean he wasn't wanted at the moment, went over to Chewbacca and Poe, who were engaged in an attempt to repair Chewie's Dejarik board. He stood behind the two with his hands in his pockets casually as though inspecting their progress, but it was obvious his attention was still on Rey.

"Good." Obi-Wan ignited his own saber, holding the humming blade out before him. "Now strike me."

"What?" Rey wrenched her gaze away from watching Finn, bewildered.

"Go on, try to attack me," Obi-Wan waved a hand impatiently. "Don't worry, you won't be able to hit—!" He ducked posthaste as Rey, taking his assurance to heart without further question, took an unceremonious swing that would have likely beheaded a less-skilled opponent.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" the girl wailed as he regained his footing, dusting off his robes in an attempt to regain some dignity. "Are you okay?"

"You exhibit an extraordinary level of striking speed," Obi-Wan dismissed her concerns with an elegant wave of his hand. "However, you need to focus more on _control_. I could see that your momentum nearly threw you off balance; a mistake that will easily turn deadly in a real match."

"Okay," Rey laughed nervously. Behind her, Finn gave a just-as-uneasy chuckle, then ducked to hide behind Poe after remembering he wasn't supposed to be distracting her.

"Haha!" Poe let out a whoop of triumph as the Dejarik board finally flickered on, returning the Wookie's proffered high-five. The two promptly began a game, with Finn looking on curiously. Han strolled in, having left the cockpit on autopilot to come see what all the fuss was about, and looked a bit startled to be met with flashing lightsabers.

Rey tried again, and this time Obi-Wan blocked her strike easily. The two circled one another in a kind of dance, exchanging swift blows before backing off again. Once Rey got into the groove of it, she found herself enjoying the match very much. It was quite a different feeling from her battle with Kylo Ren, in which both anger and fear had fuelled her strength. Here, the exchange was more laid-back, almost lazy. Obi-Wan had cool, casual fighting style, and she wished she could someday be as relaxed and easygoing as he was. Her own methods were so…

"Erratic," Obi-Wan remarked when they had both paused a moment to catch their breath. "You're unconventional, and therefore unpredictable. Very interesting."

"Is that a bad thing?" Rey asked anxiously.

"No, not necessarily," Obi-Wan shrugged. "Just… different. If your opponent cannot predict what you are about to do next, that gives you an advantage over him. However, you still need to work on _control_. The best, most unexpected moves that have the potential to take your opponent off-guard are virtually useless if you have no command over them. Don't put so much energy into putting _strength_ behind your strike; instead focus on _accuracy_. The momentum and lethality of your blade will do the slicing for you."

Luke sat, unnoticed, in the corner, slouched against the wall with a brooding expression across his face. Leia came up to him, settling down to sit beside him. "Have you figured it out yet?" she asked softly.

"That that's Ben Kenobi?" Luke's shoulders lifted in a noncommittal shrug. "Yeah. I put two and two together a long time ago. He still talks the same." He slouched further into the wall.

"Then why such the long face?" Leia pressed. "I would think you'd be happy to see your old mentor again. I know how much he meant to you."

"But that's just it," Luke turned to look at her with a frown. "I'm not really seeing him again. Just a much younger, barely recognizable version of him." He chewed at a hangnail. "When this mission is over and we all go back home, everything will stay the same. He'll still be dead." He winced as the tender flesh at his fingernail split, and watched curiously as a bead of bright red blood welled up from the torn area.

"Maybe." Leia shifted from sitting on her legs to stretching them out in front of her. "I still think you should get to know this Obi-Wan, too. Who knows, maybe he'll be a lot more fun now that he's your age." She paused, cocking her head thoughtfully. "Even if that _is_ really weird to think about."

Luke groaned into the ceiling. "Not helping, Leia." He returned to his bleeding hangnail, and poked at it, leaving a smear of dark crimson on his forefinger. He looked on, mesmerized, as yet another globule of blood rose to the surface to take its place.

"Luke," Leia frowned. "Stop doing that."

"He doesn't need me, anyway." Luke dropped his head, muttering into his knees. "He's already content without an annoying little tagalong he doesn't even know. Why ruin things for him? I'm useless to him. The only reason he cared about me in the first place was because I was the last of the Jedi."

Leia tossed her head back briskly. "I'm not accepting any of this self-deprecating asininity, nor am I going to pat your back and tell you all of it's a lie. Because you already know it is."

Luke sighed, his blond bangs hanging into his eyes. "He's already got a perfectly perfect apprentice to deal with. My dad."

Leia rolled her eyes. "That little jerk, Anakin?"

"Don't say that about my dad," Luke mumbled. "He was— _is—_ a great war hero."

"War doesn't make people great." Leia scoffed, tucking a few stray strands of hair from her braided updo behind her ear. "You can save the entire universe and still be a total snake." She stared down at her hands in her lap. "It's how you treat people as individuals that tells the real truth about your character."

"I guess." Luke sat up, wiping his finger on his pants.

A loud pinging came from the cockpit, and Han went back to go examine it. When he returned, everyone stood, and Obi-Wan and Rey paused in their lightsaber bout, breathing heavily. Han regarded them with a strange, crooked smile.

"This is it. We're here."


	6. Chapter 6

The companions watched in silence as the gangplank lowered, revealing curling mist and marshy ground outside the ship. It was hard to make out anything through the fog but shadowed rock formations that loomed out of the darkness. The fog was a sickly grey color, drifting lazily through the hatchway to bring the stench of something rotten to their senses. The planet was completely silent but for the soft beeping from the computer console in the _Falcon_ 's cockpit behind them.

Poe broke the silence. "Cheery little place, isn't it?"

Footsteps echoed in the corridor and Anakin and Padmé trotted up, looking bewildered as everyone turned to look at them. Obi-Wan addressed his apprentice suspiciously. "Where have you two been?"

"Nowhere." Anakin's explanation was much too quick and hardly satisfying, but his master didn't have the patience to investigate further.

"Fine." Obi-Wan glanced around at the others, then eyed the scenery outside. "All right, suppose we find this Pool of Time, shall we?"

The others laughed weakly at the languid hint of humor in his voice before following the Jedi out onto the gangplank.

Leia surveyed the obscured landscape with her arms folded across her chest. "The ghosts mentioned caverns. We'll need to stick close together."

"But then if one of us falls, all of us will end up falling into the same pit," Finn said nervously.

"But we may also be able to catch the person who fell before it's too late," Padmé pointed out.

Poe tapped his fingers against his chin thoughtfully. "I like your optimistic outlook on things, dear lady."

"This place gives me the creeps." Rey wasn't ashamed to admit it, instead rubbing her arm uncertainly as she glanced around.

Anakin turned to her, his chin lifted in a patronizing gesture. "Don't worry, my master and I will be there to protect you. As Jedi, we're trained for this sort of thing since birth."

"Oh joy. I feel so much safer now." Leia scoffed, glancing over her shoulder. "I wouldn't be surprised if you were unable to fit down one of the caverns anyway, with that enormous head of yours."

Anakin shot her a look of disdain, and she returned the gesture with one of pure contempt. Without a another word, the two fell into an intense eye-to-eye staredown, sizing each other up in disgust. It was hard to tell who disliked the other more.

Obi-Wan caught Anakin's shoulder, breaking his concentration. With a derisive curl of his lip, Anakin turned away from Leia, following his master to the end of the gangplank. There the two tested the surface of the marshy ground carefully. It squelched loudly when they tried their weight against it. Obi-Wan pulled back.

"Ground seems solid enough."

"Someone will need to stay with the ship," Leia replied, eyeing the _Falcon_.

"I'll stay," Han spoke up. Chewie roared in agreement.

Leia nodded, then turned to size the others up critically. "Rey and Finn, you stay here with Han and Chewbacca. The less people we have to keep up with out in this mist, the better."

Rey and Finn obliged without dissent, trotting up the bank to join the smuggler and his copilot, but Anakin scoffed. Who did this woman think she was, ordering them all around like she was in charge? They had not assigned a specific "leader", per say, for the mission— but if anyone, it should've been the Jedi, whom Anakin was sure had much more experience with this type of thing than any of the others.

Anakin wasn't sure why the Jedi Masters had sent the others along in the first place, anyway. He and his master were perfectly capable of handling the mission themselves, without a bunch of inept hero wannabes tagging along everywhere. It was simple: Go in, stop the Sith, get back out. _Simple_. The Masters had only been making it more complicated by sending nine of them and a Wookie to stop one man.

Anakin shook his head. He would just never understand the way those obscure and senile old brains functioned.

Han turned to run back to the cockpit, and came back holding a handful of red flares. "All right. Fire off one of these if you're in trouble, understand?" He pressed the flares into Leia's hands. "If something happens, perhaps we'll be able to help."

"Same goes for you." Leia shoved a couple of them back at him.

Luke eyed the explosives with a frown. "I doubt either of us will be able to see anything through this smog."

"Either way, they're our best bet to stay in touch." Han clapped Luke on the shoulder. "Take care of yourselves, will you?"

"Same to you," Leia repeated. Luke turned and saw that the two were sharing a lengthy stare, a bit longer than was necessary for Luke's comfort. He opened his mouth to say something, but he wasn't sure what, so he just shut it again.

Chewie seemed to also notice the awkward silence, and sought to fill it with a well-wishing bark. Leia jumped, as though suddenly realizing where she was. Her face reddened, and her lips pressed together firmly as she turned to join the others, who were already leaving. Han hurried to join Chewie and the _Falcon_ crew, stepping back to watch the others leave with a brooding expression.

"Right. Everyone… follow me." Obi-Wan placed a tentative step onto the marshy ground. "Careful. Stick close."

Anakin joined him, and the others trailed after the two wordlessly. A single-file line began to wind slowly through the mist, with Obi-Wan in the lead and Poe comprising the rear. Padmé shuffled along behind Anakin, holding tightly to his hand as they trekked on together.

"The ground is strange," Luke remarked casually, as he pulled his foot out of the muck with a wet _shlop_. "It's solid, but not really. Like if we stay still for too long in one spot, we're all going to keep sinking forever."

"Not to mention it's this sickly grey color?" Poe gave a grimace, hurrying to catch up with the others. "It's just so… gloomy. The sooner we get out of this place, the happier I'll be."

"Stay focused, everyone," Leia said firmly, but she knew exactly how they felt. The atmosphere seemed to be affecting her mood, making her anxious and uncertain. She set her teeth as doubts began to seep into the chinks of her resolve, forcing her to remember the importance of this mission— everything she didn't know, everything that could go wrong, and the enormous cost of failure. But it would do no good if they all simply gave up now. They had to press on.

It was a tediously slow business, as each foot had to be tested with the greatest care before a single step could be made. However, as Luke had mentioned, they were also anxious to keep moving. It didn't help when their vision was only able to span a few feet on each side due to the fog; enormous rocks kept materializing in front of them just as they were about to walk right into them, and Obi-Wan was forced to lead the group around them.

"The Masters could have been a bit more specific on where to find this 'Pool of Time'," Anakin muttered under his breath.

At that moment, Padmé fell with a startled scream, her grip on his arm yanking him nearly to the ground. Her right leg had gone through the surface of the marshy ground, and was stuck fast. Anakin strained to pull her back up, but the sludge refused to release her, slurping loudly. He could feel the wobbly instability underneath his own feet as he fought for purchase on the slimy earth.

"Anakin!"

It's all right— I've got you," Anakin gasped out the words, knowing full well that they were a lie. She was slipping, sinking quickly even as he strove to keep his grip on her. She was already waist-deep into the sludge when Luke leapt forward, hand outstretched to help Anakin pull her back up.

"Careful!" Obi-Wan's shout came too late. Without warning, an enormous hole opened up, swallowing Padmé and yanking Anakin after her. Throwing his free arm out wildly, he managed to catch his body perpendicular to the sides of the pit, his arm and legs splayed out like those of a starfish's. Padmé continued falling, however, and her weight jolted his body mercilessly, nearly wrenching his shoulder from its socket.

Luke wasn't so lucky. The young pilot slipped through the surface after Padmé, but without anyone to grab him, he fell into the darkness below.

"LUKE!" Leia screamed, darting forward, but Obi-Wan threw out a hand.

"STOP! Don't move."

Leia paused, breathing heavily. Obi-Wan eyed her for a moment before dropping to his stomach. Carefully, painstakingly, he began army crawling his way to the incapacitated Anakin. "Don't move," he repeated through gritted teeth.

"I—still—have her," Anakin panted, perspiration gathering on his forehead. His limbs shot with pain from the strain of bearing both his and Padmé's weight, but he didn't dare move, even to look down at Padmé dangling below. He could still feel her hand in his, her weight striving to pull him down with her.

"I'm coming, Anakin," Obi-Wan strained to keep the fear from his voice as he inched closer.

"Anakin!" Padmé's voice sounded faint, almost muffled, and Anakin felt the marshy ground beginning to close over his body again, creeping up his limbs threateningly.

"Her hand—" Anakin forced the words through the tightly-clenched barrier of his teeth. "It's slipping—"

"Just hold on!" It took all of Obi-Wan's self-control to go carefully, slowly. He wanted to dive for his apprentice and yank both of them to safety, but he forced himself to remain wary of the unstable surface.

Suddenly, there was a surprised yelp and a loud squelching noise behind them— Leia whirled around to find that Poe had vanished. The slimy hole directly where he had once been standing began closing up almost immediately. Spinning back around to Anakin and Padmé's own rapidly refilling hole, she again screamed into the blackness below desperately. " _Luke!_ "

"Anakin!" Padmé's voice was barely audible as the earth began to close in around Anakin's arm.

"I can't— hold— on—" Anakin's breathing came in gasps. He could feel the tautness of his limbs braced against the lip of the pit, the strain of bearing her weight threatening to snap them the wrong way. They began to tremble violently, and he ground his teeth against the pain. "Padmé, no—"

Obi-Wan finally reached him, catching his shoulder. "Anakin—"

A faint scream came from below them, and Anakin felt Padmé's fingers slip from his. With a gasp, he rolled onto his back, the agonizing tension on his body mercifully released.

Yet he didn't care. Immediately he was on his knees, tearing at the newly filled-in ground in a crazed frenzy. "Padmé!"

"Anakin stop, you'll—" The rest of the area caved in beneath them, sending Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Leia all tumbling into the fathomless depths of the underground cavern after the others.


	7. Chapter 7

Han stood at the mouth of the Falcon's gangplank, staring off into the mist with a dark expression on his face. Rey approached him, cautiously, tiptoeing up to stand by his side.

"They'll be fine. If they were in trouble they'd send up a flare, wouldn't they?"

Han turned to her, momentarily startled. Quickly, he put on his usual cocky bluster. "Worry? Why would I be worried? They can all take care of themselves." He scoffed. "Well. Except for Luke, that is. That kid's gotten into more scrapes than Chewie's avoided a shower. Ha, ha." His laughter felt hollow and strained, even to his own ears. He fell silent.

Rey rubbed her arm awkwardly, wondering how to say out loud what was on her mind. "This is… this is just so… crazy. I never thought I'd get to do something like this. Most of these people are extremely famous legends where I come from."

"Yeah?" Han wasn't entirely listening, having turned back to staring off into the distance.

"Yeah." Rey shifted. "This… this is huge. This is a really big mission. I keep pinching myself, just to make sure this isn't some crazy dream I'm having." She laughed nervously. "And I just keep asking myself… why me?"

"Hm?" Han turned to glance back at her quizzically.

"Why me?" Rey repeated. "I mean, I'm just a Jakkuian scavenger. I dig up scraps for a living. I'm not anybody important. So why would the Jedi Masters choose for me to participate in something this big? Alongside… heroes like... all of you?"

"What?" Han snorted, apparently finding her words amusing. "You're saying I'm a hero? Pfft, not a chance. You think I _like_ adventuring?" He jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "I'm not in it for the glory, kid. Oh, no. I just need the money. I've got a bounty on my head I've gotta pay off soon, see, or I'm dead meat. Luke and Leia, they're the _real_ heroes of the Rebellion. I just got dragged along into the thing, that's all."

"Oh." Rey dropped her gaze to her hands. She meant to keep the mumbled thought to herself, but Han overheard her. "If you don't care about the Rebellion, then why have you stayed for so long?"

He glanced down at the flares in his hand pensively. "I'm not sure," he said finally.

Rey too was silent for a moment, her hands fidgeting. Without looking up, she phrased her words carefully. "Most… most of the people here are dead in the time I come from."

"Really?" Han picked a piece of lint from his jacket absently.

"Yeah." She stood there helplessly, wishing to say more but knowing that she couldn't. Instead, she turned to head back into the ship's interior.

Finn met her at the medbay, trotting to catch up before shortening his stride to keep pace with her. "Hey, don't look so down. What's up?"

Rey shook her head. "It's nothing." At Finn's skeptical expression, she turned to glance back at the figure standing in the hatchway, still staring off into space. "It's just… he's like the dad I never had, you know? And then knowing that when everything returns to normal… he'll be gone. Again."

Finn frowned. " _I'll_ still be here." he said, a bit defensively.

Rey blinked, then laughed. "Yeah." She grinned. "Remember when we first met, and I thought you'd taken Poe's jacket because you'd stolen it?"

"Yeah…" Finn winced, remembering the instance all too well. "And so you attacked me with your staff."

Rey blushed. "Ohhh, did I? Well, that was before I knew you." She bumped against his shoulder playfully. "Before I knew that you're so shy you wouldn't smack at a bee buzzing around your head."

"That's not true!" Finn protested. He rubbed his shoulder with a wounded expression.

Rey just laughed.

"Hey!" Han's shout rang out behind them, and they shared a bewildered look before darting back out onto the gangplank to find the smuggler peering off into the mist with his blaster extended.

"I just saw movement. There, between those two rocks."

Rey craned her neck, but she couldn't see anything but thick, curling smog. "All I see is mist."

"Maybe it's the others returning?" Finn said hopefully.

"That would be an extremely short time for them to have been gone though," Rey murmured doubtfully.

Chewbacca came up behind Han, squinting his eyes. "Oaaaarrroooh!"

I'm trying, Chewie!" Han shot back. "I can't see where it went!"

Suddenly, Rey felt an icy finger slide down her spine. She _felt_ someone. A presence that she had never wanted to feel again. She tensed, eyes widening.

Finn noticed her discomfort. "Rey?"

She turned to him, eyes wide. "It's him, Finn. He's here. I can feel him."

"Who?" Han demanded.

"Kylo Ren."

* * *

With a painful, jarring shock, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Leia hit the bottom of the cavern. Fortunately, it wasn't as long of a drop as they had first feared and was padded by more of the planet's slimy terra; it nevertheless knocked the breath straight out of their lungs. They lay there for a moment, making mental checklists of every limb still attached. There was an eerie stillness in the air, broken only by their own groans and labored breathing as they began getting to their feet. The darkness was almost palpable.

Obi-Wan staggered to his feet with a moan, calling out into the darkness urgently. "Is everyone alright?"

Leia's grunt came from his left. "Just peachy."

"Me too," Luke's voice echoed behind her uncertainly, and Leia gasped in relief.

"Luke!"

"Padmé?" Anakin's voice faltered with trepidation.

Following the sound of his voice, she found his hand. "I'm here," she replied, a little shakily.

Leia grunted again as she got to her feet. "Is that everyone?"

There's still Poe, the Resistance pilot," Obi-Wan answered.

There was silence.

"Poe?" Obi-Wan turned, but he still was unable to see a thing.

Still there was no answer.

"He didn't fall that far from us," Leia said slowly, "So it's not like he can't hear us."

"Poe!" Padmé's voice echoed loudly throughout the cavern for quite some time, suggesting that it was much larger than they had first thought.

In answer, a violent scraping noise ricocheted off of the walls back at her. The noise intensified, giving the impression of something very large gradually getting nearer. Anakin's hand returned to Padmé's again, squeezing it ferociously.

"I don't think that's Poe," Leia said humorlessly.

There was a sudden buzz and hum of energy as both Anakin and Obi-Wan ignited their lightsabers. A moment later, Luke did so as well. Raising his blade in front of his face and squinting in the abrupt brightness, he was suddenly met with with a million pairs of milky-white eyes reflecting the light of his saber back at him.

He took a step back, attempting to keep his voice calm. Casual. "Uh… I think there's something in here with us…"

Immediately, a slimy tentacle flung itself around his ankles, yanking him off his feet. It took him a few moments to realize he was now being slung about, upside-down. With a yelp, he reacted in a panic, attempting to hack at his captor with his lightsaber. The creature merely passed him from one tentacle to the next, avoiding the lethal blade with dexterity.

"LUKE!" Leia snarled, whipping out her blaster and firing wildly into the darkness. There was a terrible gurgled hiss, and the creature thrashed about in pain. Luke felt himself tossed into the air to be caught once again, and the creature took off at top speed, scuttling away through the cavern.

Obi-Wan and Anakin leapt forward after the creature, their flashing lightsabers lighting the way. Leia pelted after them, blaster ready for another go but unwilling to fire into the darkness again for fear of hitting Luke; Padmé dashed behind her, fumbling with her own weapon as well. The ground squelched under their feet, occasionally giving way to slick surfaces so that they slipped and slid, careening after the creature recklessly.

The Jedi quickened their pace, lengthening their stride, but the creature was much faster. Luke's yells became fainter and fainter, until they could hardly be heard anymore. The chase lasted no more than a few seconds before the Jedi slowed the a halt: they'd lost their quarry in the darkness. Leia and Padmé caught up to them quickly, gasping for breath.

"Luke?" Leia's voice echoed throughout the cavern, breathless and frightened. Mocking her. The only sound was their own labored breathing, and something wet dripping from above.

Anakin muttered profanity under his breath, kicking at the squelching earth in fury.


	8. Chapter 8

Leia turned back to the others rubbing her arms shakily, suddenly cold. "I… I can't believe we lost him."

"Both of them," Obi-Wan added dully, for it was apparent that Poe had met his fate in the same manner. He placed a hand on Leia's shoulder sympathetically. He hadn't known Luke for very long, but the young Rebel had seemed to have been a good kid, and _certainly_ had not deserved to die so young.

Padmé leaned into Anakin with a dazed expression, and he held her tightly. He scanned the shadows with a defiant look, determined to enact his revenge on the creature if it ever decided to return.

His son. That kid had been his son.

It ought to have sparked something inside of him, but all he felt was an icy numbness. Instead, he pulled Padmé closer. He dared the creature to just _try_ and come take _her_.

"We need to find a way to out of here," Obi-Wan said softly. Leia's shoulder was cold and stiff under his hand as he finally pulled away.

Padmé glanced up, the light of the lightsabers dancing on her grief-stricken face. "Would we be able to fire a flare out of here?"

Obi-Wan shook his head reluctantly. "That's unlikely. It will most likely simply bounce off the cavern ceiling."

"We can give it a try, can't we?" Anakin clenched a fist. "The ceiling's not exactly solid. Maybe we can blow a hole through it?"

Obi-Wan shot his apprentice a look, as most of Anakin's plans tended to involve 'blowing things up'. It wasn't a bad idea, however, and the Jedi master got to work setting up the flare. The explosive spluttered a bit when it was lit, fighting against the dampness of the floor, before finally shooting upwards with a loud hiss. There was a pop and a squelching noise as sparks showered down on them from above, but the flare made it through. Even so, no one felt much like cheering at the moment.

Leia plopped down on the wet ground to wait listlessly. "I wonder if they can even see it back on the ship through all the mist."

"I'm wondering how they'll be able to help us out of here," Obi-Wan replied grimly. "With the ground behaving as it is, they could very well become trapped themselves."

* * *

Back on the _Millennium Falcon_ , Finn was peering anxiously off into the mist. "Are you _absolutely sure_ you can feel Kylo Ren?"

"I'm sure." Rey said fimly, setting her jaw.

Finn exhaled, running a hand through his cropped hair. "Well, that complicates things. What is _he_ doing on this planet?"

Han scratched the back of his neck casually. "Not to _add_ to your little plate of worries, but have you noticed that this gangplank appears to be getting shorter as we speak?"

Both Rey and Finn glanced at him in surprise. "What?"

"Seems this terrain isn't the most solid of grounds."

"We're sinking?!" Finn exclaimed, spinning around wildly.

"To put it more dramatically, yes. Yes, we're sinking." Han eyed the gangplank with distaste.

Finn spluttered, searching for words. "Then— then— why don't you _do_ something about it?!"

"Brilliant suggestion, but I'm afraid..." Han stepped behind them to slide into the cockpit without finishing his sentence.

Flipping a few switches, he began priming the _Falcon_ for takeoff. Grasping the control yoke, he attempted to maneuver the _Falcon_ out of the swamp. There was an ominous bubbling noise, and the ship gave a series of violent lurches, throwing its passengers to the ground. They scrambled to their feet again with some difficulty, as everything was at a crazy angle.

"What was that?!" Rey tottered unsteadily on the inclining floor, her outstretched arms doing little to balance herself.

"...I was afraid of that," Han finished his sentence dully. He muttered a colorful curse, smacking the navicomputer irritably. "I think the realspace engine's been jammed, most likely by all that slop outside."

Finn chewed his lip anxiously. "So… what do we do?"

Han ran a hand through his dark hair. "Well, the only functioning engine we've got now is the hyperdrive engine, but that'd be like suicide blasting our way out of here. No telling what we could run into in this fog."

"So… that's it then?" Finn asked in disbelief. "We're all just going to end up… drowning in goo?"

"Nah. Look." Finn followed the smuggler's pointing finger to the cockpit window, which was now tilting at a vertical angle. The slimy green-grey goo covered nearly all of the window but for a small section at the lowest part of the incline, which appeared to have given way to the emptiness of space.

"Must be one of those underground caverns the ghosts mentioned. I'm curious to see what's down there."

Rey gave a nervous laugh. "See, Finn? We're not going to drown in goo after all."

Finn shuddered. "Still, I can't shake the feeling we're being swallowed alive."

* * *

Meanwhile underground, the rest of their companions were waiting anxiously to see if the distress signal had been received. The cavern was quiet, as everyone had retreated inside their own dark thoughts. However, everyone was on their feet in a flash when another scuffing noise echoed through the darkness.

Anakin thrust his lightsaber out defiantly. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

The shuffling faltered a bit, before continuing to approach them. It sounded quite close to Padmé, and she raised her blaster, aiming into the darkness shakily. "Stop, or I'll shoot!"

Anakin leapt to her side, brandishing his lightsaber, illuminating the creature in its soft blue glow—

"Poe?" Padmé whispered in disbelief.

It was indeed the Resistance pilot, but he stood there with a strange, absent look on his face. The others ran forward to clap him on the back in relief.

"Thank the Force you're still alive!" Padmé exclaimed. "We thought the tentacled creature had found you, too!"

"That was a pretty good scare you gave us then," Obi-Wan admitted, letting out his breath in a forceful exhale.

"Where have you _been?_ " Leia demanded severely.

"Time."

Everyone stopped trying to shake his hand and stepped back, confused. "Uh… what?" Anakin tilted his head to one side.

Poe glanced around at all of them. "Time!" he repeated. He blinked, slapping a hand over his mouth as though in surprise.

Leia turned to Obi-Wan, thoroughly confused. "Why's he saying that?"

"And why does he have that creepy vacant expression on his face?" Anakin added fervently. "It's really starting to freak me out."

Obi-Wan looked just as bewildered, scratching the back of his neck as he circled the pilot slowly. Suddenly, understanding began to cross his face as he examined the pilot more closely. "Ah. He shows signs of head trauma." Tentatively, he reached out a hand to touch Poe's forehead, and brought it away, bloody. "He must have hit his head on something when he fell through the surface earlier."

"Oh no…" Padmé whispered.

Poe shrugged. "Time." His lip curled in irritation, and he gave a series of hacking coughs, pounding at his throat bewilderedly.

Anakin leaned back, scratched his head as eyed the pilot. "How long do you think he'll be like this?"

"It's hard to say." Obi-Wan looked grim. "It could last a couple hours… or for the rest of his life. The sooner we can get him medical help, the better."

"Time!" Poe said, almost angrily this time.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Anakin snapped. "Stop saying that already!"

Poe shook his head vigorously, grabbing the Jedi apprentice's arm. " _Time!_ "

"I think he wants us to follow him," Leia spoke up suddenly. Poe brightened significantly, and nodded.

" _Where?_ " Anakin yanked his arm out of the pilot's grasp. "We can't just up and leave the flare because some crazy pilot wants us to follow him!"

Poe shot Anakin a dirty look, waving his arms impatiently. "Time!"

"He seems very insistent." Obi-Wan stroked his chin thoughtfully, before realizing he didn't have a beard anymore.

Leia straightened up suddenly, turning to Poe. "All right, I'm coming." The Resistance pilot looked quite relieved as she dug around to pull out a small penlight from her belt. He motioned impatiently for her to follow him, and immediately began trotting off into the darkness.

Anakin spluttered as Leia hurried to follow him. "Wait! Where are you going? What if it's a trap?"

"It's not a trap." Leia did not turn.

"But—but—you can't just _leave—_ "

Leia finally turned, her eyes lit in the light from his lightsaber with an almost reddish glint, which made absolutely no sense considering the pale blue color of his blade. She said nothing, only glared at him, hardened brown eyes like steady laser beams.

Anakin faltered, taking a step back. There was something… about her eyes. Something he'd… something he'd seen before. But _where?_

It was gone before he had a chance to discover what it was, the princess turning abruptly to stalk away without another word. Her penlight bobbed in the darkness before she and Poe apparently turned some kind of corner and were gone. Anakin was left standing there with that same sense of _familiarity_ hovering over him, like an annoying insect he just couldn't put his finger on.

The silence was broken by a loud exhale from Obi-Wan. "Oookaaayyy…"

"Well she's a fiery one, isn't she?" Anakin remarked, still slightly befuddled by her intensity.

Obi-Wan sighed. "I'd better go after her, before she gets herself killed. Anakin, stay here with Senator Amidala and the flare. _Don't move_ , understand?" He gave his apprentice a hard stare. "I'll be right back."

"Yes, Master," Anakin droned dutifully, and Obi-Wan hurried off after Leia and Poe.

Quickly catching up with the two, he was forced to lengthen his stride to keep up, as Leia was walking very quickly. "Your Highness—"

"Don't call me that." Leia snapped.

"All right. Princess—"

"It's just _Leia_."

"All right— _Leia_. I just want you to see some sense here. The Resistance pilot is—" At the mention of his name, Poe turned to stare at Obi-Wan curiously. It was extremely disturbing, and the Jedi Master broke into a cold sweat without really knowing why. "Well, Poe is clearly not in his right mind. I just wanted to… to express my concern…"

Poe snorted a laugh, a strange, high-pitched giggle that revertibrated off of the walls of the cavern over and over again until it became almost maniacal.

"...With your trust in his mental competence at the moment," Obi-Wan finished lamely. "That's all."

"Good." Leia said bluntly.

"Good that I think you're making a poor choice of judgment?" Obi-Wan cocked his head to the side. "Or good that I've finished talking?"

Leia shot him a queer glance. "You're a strange, quirky person, did you know that?"

"I could say the same of yourself," Obi-Wan replied.

The corner of Leia's lip twitched ever so slightly. "Then let's be friends, shall we?"

Obi-Wan considered this. "What are the implications of that offer?"

"You don't question my judgment, and I won't question yours."

"...All right, then."

At that moment, Poe stopped in his tracks. "Time."

Obi-Wan and Leia looked up— and gasped. They were standing in front of a large body of water, of which the entirety shone with a soft purple glow, even though there was no light of that shade nearby that it could possibly have been reflecting from. Even when Leia flicked her penlight off and Obi-Wan de-ignited his lightsaber, it continued to radiate a luminescence just bright enough for them to see each other's faces, gleaming purple. The water rippled gently, though there was no breeze to be felt. An eerie stillness loomed over them, pressing in around them.

Poe gestured to the pool even though it wasn't necessary. "Time," he repeated softly.

"Time," Leia echoed in a whisper. "Well _done_ , Poe."


	9. Chapter 9

"Well done to _all_ of you," a voice drawled behind them. "I told my master you would be on my tail soon enough, and sure enough, I was right."

The three spun to find a masked person striding towards them out of the darkness. He was tall, somber, and _dark—_ not just his full-headed mask or his clothing, but his entire _aura_ radiated an almost palpable shade about him.

Obi-Wan immediately re-ignited his lightsaber, holding it out between the newcomer and his companions. "Who are you?"

"A good question to begin with," The newcomer nodded in approval, his artificially deepened voice growling the words. "And I suppose the next one will be about my business here, am I right?" He reached for something at his side. "I'll answer both at once, just to make it easier on you." With a sudden hum, a blade of fiery red light extended from his hand.

Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed, and his fingers curled more tightly around his own lightsaber. "You're the Sith apprentice." It wasn't a question.

The masked man nodded in satisfaction, rolling his head slightly to one side. "My _name_ is Kylo Ren. No need to introduce yourselves; I already know who _all_ of you are. You're Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi master of Anakin Skywalker." He inclined his head in the Jedi's direction. Kenobi remained silent, instead searching to figure the Sith apprentice out. What was under that intimidating mask? What was he hiding?

Ren began to twirl his lightsaber in an arc carelessly.

Leia followed the Sith's movements with her outstretched blaster, her finger resting firmly against the trigger, ready to pull it at any moment. "What do you want?"

Ren seemed not to have heard her, however, instead keeping his gaze locked on Obi-Wan's.

Poe took an uncertain step backwards. "Time…"

Kenobi returned the empty stare from the Sith's masked face with an equally level gaze. "What do you want?" he repeated, more loudly this time.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Kylo Ren's swinging lightsaber began to trace larger circles. "Here in front of me lies a pool that defies all natural laws and gives me the power over time itself." He raised his head, speaking into the ceiling. "Where even to begin? The fate of the entire galaxy is here at my fingertips. What events can I alter? Whose history can I rewrite? Whose past can I… _influence?_ "

Obi-Wan shifted in his defensive stance, sliding his feet more firmly into the damp ground. "We were sent here to prevent you from doing all of those things, and we will do so to the best of our abilities."

Leia suddenly noticed a curious movement above Kylo Ren's head, as thought the ceiling itself were closing in on him. She blinked to refocus her vision, but the flickering blue and red light from the lightsabers cast uncertain shadows on the walls about them. It was difficult to tell what was solid and what was simply imagined.

Kylo Ren did not move. "Oh, I'm scared now. You couldn't even stop that cave creature from taking your young friend."

"You know where Luke is?" Leia burst out.

Yet once again, the apprentice did not even glance in her direction, as though she were a mere shadow on the wall, barely worth noticing. Obi-Wan noted this, and glanced over at Leia to find that the princess had set her teeth in silent rage. He turned back to Kylo Ren, once again repeating her words more slowly. "Luke. You know about Luke?"

"Of course." Ren waved a careless hand. "I was the one who had the creature take him." He swiftly raised his palm above his head, and a large shadow suddenly loomed behind him. "These creatures are very simple-minded, and therefore quite easy to control," he continued. "And now, it seems that this leaves you in a very _delicate_ situation."

With another flick of his hand, the creature stepped out into the light of his saber, so that every bulbous eye glowed a demonic red. Tentacles slid over one another like writhing snakes as the creature reached inside of itself, withdrawing Luke from within its viscous folds, dangling the young pilot aloft by his ankles.

Leia couldn't help the strangled gasp that escaped her lips as she stepped forward impulsively. "Luke!"

 _There!_ Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Kylo Ren had shot her a swift look, his helmeted head turning quickly in her direction before darting away again. So he _knew_ she was there. He was just ignoring her.

 _Why?_

Her attention was quickly drawn back to her friend, however, who continued to sway lifelessly from the creature's grasp, apparently unconscious. The creature's countless eyes watched the body swing back and forth like a pendulum with unmistakable greed. Yet it was clearly waiting for something, half of its eyes fixated on Kylo Ren as the apprentice began to speak again.

"It's very simple, really. I shouldn't even have to explain how this works." His lightsaber buzzed as he continued to swing it in lazy circles. "Either you let me pass... or I give this creature permission to dispatch of the young Jedi."

A savage snarl broke from Leia's throat, and it was all she could do not to fling herself at the young man. Then it happened again. She was almost _certain_ there was something slowly descending on Kylo Ren from above. Something very large.

She grasped for anything to stall time. The young Sith seemed to be willing to do anything it took to achieve his ends, and that scared her. If he were allowed to continue through the time pool, there would be no telling what he could do.

Yet if they didn't agree to his demands, Luke would die. And Leia couldn't bear to have that happen.

"You wouldn't," She growled finally. "If he dies here, you could destroy the course of the future."

"No one said he _had_ to die," Ren snarled, suddenly turning on her, evidently forgetting all about his disregard for her existence in the heat of his fury. "Remember that _you_ are the one who gets to decide that."

"Master!" Anakin burst into the light, Padmé hot on his heels. The two skidded to a stop, bewildered, when they caught sight of Kylo Ren.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan exclaimed. "I told you to stay with the flare!"

"I got tired of— I mean, I sensed you were in trouble," Anakin said quickly. "And I was right. Who's the creep?" He crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin, eyeing the masked man warily.

Yet at the arrival of the young Jedi, Leia saw a change pass over Kylo Ren's demeanor. Instead of open distaste and contempt, his body language changed to uncertainty as he took a step backwards as though in surprise. He quickly composed himself however, though conspicuously struggling to do so. "You're… you're Anakin Skywalker." His fingers twitched at his side.

"Oof, the creep knows my name," Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Double points for creepiness." Suddenly understanding washed over him, darkening his expression. "Ah. You're the Sith apprentice, aren't you?"

Anakin flipped his lightsaber into the air, catching and igniting it simultaneously, a little trick he'd perfected in the near ten minutes he'd been waiting by the flare with Padmé. "Ha!" His mouth curved into a smug leer. "Thought you could outsmart the Jedi, huh? But we discovered you plan. You've been outwitted, outnumbered, and outmatched." He cocked his head, brandishing his lightsaber. "Looks like it's the end of the road for—"

The rest of his words were drowned out by a loud squelching noise as an enormous shadow dropped from the ceiling, directly onto Kylo Ren and his beast— those gathered saw with astonishment that it was the _Millennium Falcon_. There was a terrified squeal from the cave creature as the ship crushed it; with a noise like that of a water balloon bursting, bits of slimy entrails and tentacles exploded in all directions, drenching everyone in a thick grey goop.

The next few moments were pandemonium. A large tentacle, still wriggling, found itself wound around Padmé's body, constricting like a snake seeking to strangle her— Anakin leapt on it with a snarl, slicing it into bits. At the same time, Leia gasped, darting forward to where she had seen the rest of the creature disappear underneath the _Falcon_ — with Luke. She slipped and slid amongst the splattered limbs, calling out his name in desperation as she scoured the underbelly of the ship, fearing the worst.

To her immense relief, she found that him lying unharmed, protected from the crushing weight of the _Falcon_ by its extended landing gear. Grabbing him by the collar, she slapped him twice across the face. He didn't move.

Terrified, she slapped him again, harder this time, to no avail. Finally she fell over top of him with her cheek pressed against his chest. His heartbeat was there, faint and significantly slower, but steady. It was obvious he'd been drugged, or perhaps poisoned into a paralyzed state by the creature.

She sat back, biting her lip, as the _Falcon's_ gangplank was lowered and Han, Rey, and Finn stumbled out bewilderedly. Han took one look at the scene and raised a hand to his forehead with a low whistle. "What the…"

Leia's head shot up. "Han! Help me!"

He turned in surprise, eyes widening when he caught sight of her by his friend's motionless body. "Luke! What happened?!"

"He was attacked," Leia snapped. "Just help me get him on the ship!"

Han moaned as he assisted Leia in lifting Luke, whose head flopped back pitifully like a ragdoll's. "Ohhh...Come on, kid... why do you always have to this kind of stuff on us?"

"What's going on?" Rey exclaimed, glancing around. "What is everyone doing down here?"

"The Sith!" Obi-Wan spun in a circle desperately. "Where's the Sith?"

Anakin pulled Padmé to her feet with a growl at the twitching remains of the tentacle beside her. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," Padmé brushed herself off with a shudder.

" _Where's the Sith?_ " Obi-Wan repeated, gesturing with his lightsaber wildly. Anakin glanced up, startled.

"I don't know! He was right here!"

"Time! Time!" Poe yelled, gesturing with his arms wildly. The Jedi spun around in dismay, somehow knowing exactly what he was attempting to call to their attention before they even saw it— and turned just in time to see Kylo Ren disappear into the time pool.

The ripples from his disturbance spread rapidly across the surface with a lavender glow; underneath them the Jedi caught sight of the endless golden-brown dunes of a desert landscape.

With a snarl Anakin leapt after him, and Obi-Wan just managed to catch his apprentice by the arm before he dove in after Ren. "Anakin, we can't just jump in there after him!"

Anakin thought quickly, abruptly changing direction. "Right then— we'll _fly_ in after him. Come on, Master!" He caught Padmé's hand as he dashed past, dragging her after him into the _Millennium Falcon_ , nearly running Han and Leia over as they struggled to carry the unconscious Luke on board.

Obi-Wan stumbled after his headstrong apprentice in desperation. "Wait, Anakin!"

The young Jedi paid him no heed, skidding into the cockpit and throwing himself into the pilot's chair. "Everybody on the ship now!" he roared, flipping switches to initiate the _Falcon's_ launch sequence, gripping the control yoke with white knuckles. "Like, right now! Or we're leaving you!"

Finn and Rey shared a bemused look before hurrying to do what he said, dragging the bewildered Poe behind them. Obi-Wan, in his frantic rush to stop his apprentice, turned the corner and collided blindly with them behind the cockpit. He stumbled back with a moan, clutching at his spinning head. Anakin glanced back once, but turned back to his fervent operations quickly.

"What the Hoth do you think you're doing?!" Han yelped when he caught sight of Anakin at the controls, dumping Luke's body onto the medical bed in the ship's sick bay. He lunged across the cockpit for Anakin, but it was too late: the young Jedi had already initiated the launch sequence.

The _Falcon_ gave a weary groan, like an old dog being prodded awake. Its engines roared to life, immediately choking on the slime that jammed them. The ship jumped forward, grinding its way along the ground with a loud metallic squeal, and Finn and Poe watched in awe and not a little horror before jumping away from the open hatchway as they crashed headlong into the pool.

Luminescent water bloomed across the cockpit window, suddenly giving way to blackness as miniscule points of light blinked all around like stars. The nasty feeling of falling from a great height settled in the pit of everyone's stomach as the ship continued to tumble around in the nothingness.

Then— a great burst of light and intense heat. The ship was afterwards hit by a violent jolt, throwing Finn and Poe out of the open hatchway, out of the ship.

Finn yelped in pain as he landed hard on his shoulder, smashing into something gritty that burned into his skin as he continued to roll, unable to halt his momentum. When he finally came to a stop, the world continued spinning, and it was a few moments before he could even lift his head, blinded by nausea. As he put his hands to the ground to push himself up, however, scalding heat tore into his palms, prompting him to immediately yank them back. Finally, he managed to stagger upright without the use of his hands, swaying unsteadily a bit as he squinted against the glare reflecting into his eyes.

As far as he could see, there was nothing around him but an endless sea of sand. It swirled from one dune to the next in a graceful dance of desolation, moaning softly; there was no sign of civilization anywhere to be seen. The horizon wavered, as though uncertain whether to remain physically present in the arid landscape. And above it all, two enormous blood-orange suns glared like angry eyes down on everything so foolish as to stand unprotected beneath them.

Even as he scanned the surrounding terrain, the sand itself seemed to burn with a fiery glow, forcing him to look away.

The _Falcon_ lay where it had crashed into a large dune, already partially buried as sand surged around it in a choking swarm of flying particles like a cloud of angry bees.

"Finn!" Rey stumbled out of the ship, skirting around Obi-Wan, as he helped Poe to his feet. She skidded unsteadily down the shifting dune to catch up to her friend. "Are you alright?"

Finn coughed, clearing his throat of the sand that coated it. "Yeah, I'm fine." He gingerly held his burnt hands away from his body as he continued to survey their surroundings.

"... Where d'you think we are?"

Meanwhile back on the _Falcon_ , Anakin peered out of the cockpit window, falling back into his seat with a groan. "Of all the places he could have gone, he chose a _desert?_ Ugh..." He leaned back with his hands covering his face wearily.

"But you grew up in a desert," Padmé peeked over the dashboard, her face pale and drawn.

"I _know_." Anakin huffed, dropping his hands to his sides. "I _hate_ sand."

Han finally reached the pilot's chair, gripping the back of it with white knuckles as he surveyed their predicament in disbelief. "Just _look_ what you've done to my ship!" The _Falcon_ gave one last cough and shudder before the spluttering engine finally died, leaving a stillness in which the only sound was the whistle of the wind outside. Han listened for a moment, before patting the side of the ship anxiously. "Don't worry old girl, we'll get you out of this…"

Obi-Wan staggered in then, still holding his head. "Anakin…"

Anakin spun to confront his master over the back of the pilot's chair. "We couldn't just let him go, Master! We still have to try to stop him before it's too late!"

Obi-Wan pulled his hand away from his swollen eye so that his disapproving glare had maximum chastising potential. "Yes, but you could have waited until we had a bit of a plan first!"

"We don't even know where we are!" Han added angrily, throwing his hands into the air in frustration.

Padmé finally turned from watching the swirling sand outside. "I don't think _where_ we are," she began slowly, "is quite as concerning as… well…" She inhaled, pure apprehension showing plainly on her face.

"... _When_ we are."


	10. Chapter 10

Finn and Rey made their way gingerly across the hot sand, returning to join the others inside the downed _Falcon_. Rey brushed the caked sand from her clothing, drawing a reproachful look from Han as a cloud of golden dust erupted around her. "Well… so what do we do now?"

Han glanced out the cockpit window, suddenly jumping back. "Something's out there. I just saw movement."

Finn squinted, attempting to see past him, and his eyes widened. "Hey, I saw something too!"

Anakin pushed past both of them, studying the dusty landscape with narrowed eyes. He turned to glance at his companions behind him, sliding down into his seat glumly. "Jawas."

"You're sure?" Obi-Wan peered outside as well, but he couldn't make out much in the swirling sand but a bunch of vague blurs.

"Certain," Anakin nodded, gesturing to his face. "I saw the eyes."

Obi-Wan stroked his chin thoughtfully, for the second time finding with no small amount of regret that he didn't have a beard anymore. "If it's Jawas, perhaps it's a clue as to where we are. The only planet I know of that Jawas are native to is… Tatooine."

"Yup. We're on Tatooine." Anakin slid further into his seat, muttering to himself. "Thought I was done with this place."

"You know your way around here?" Rey asked hopefully.

"I grew up here." Anakin grumbled. "So yeah."

Han slammed a fist down on the back of the pilot's chair, making Anakin jump. "So you know how to get us somewhere we can repair my ship?" He demanded.

Anakin laughed. "Not hardly. The entire desert looks the same. We could be anywhere on the planet. _Anywhere_."

As if that wasn't grim enough news, Obi-Wan spoke up. "I think ship repairs should be the least of our concerns at the moment. We don't know how long we're going to be out here. We're going to need supplies. And water. We're definitely going to want water."

Han scratched his head, indicating his storage compartments. "I've got—"

Kenobi cut him off. "—But not nearly enough to support nine people and a Wookie for an extended period of time, am I correct?" Han fell silent, and the others glanced at one another in apprehension as they began to digest this news.

Anakin alone was unconcerned. He slipped lazily the rest of the way out of his chair, landing with a thump on the floor. "Always the pessimist, Master." He shook his head as he got to his feet.

"Where are you going?" Obi-Wan demanded.

Anakin raised an eyebrow, as though he expected the answer to be obvious. "Just going to ask the Jawas where we are," He shrugged.

"We must be cautious," Obi-Wan insisted, tailing his apprentice out of the ship. "They could be hostile."

Anakin snorted. "Jawas? Hostile? You're hilarious, Master." He tossed his head back with a laugh. "I don't think a few four-foot-high Jawas are going to pose much of a threat to us. That is," he scoffed, "Unless you're afraid of getting your kneecap knocked out of place."

Obi-Wan decided not to reply that kneecap injuries were not exactly trivial and he wasn't at all eager to obtain one, _thankyouverymuch_. "That sort of blind confidence has gotten us into trouble many times before…"

Against his will, Anakin's eyes traveled to his right hand. His prosthetic hand. Recalling the circumstances that led up to the injury, he scowled darkly. "We're still alive, aren't we?"

The young Jedi glanced up, suddenly calling out at the small figure cowering behind the dunes. "Hey you! Yeah, you! Come here!" The Jawa gave a squeak, diving behind the dune in fright.

Obi-Wan shot his apprentice an exasperated look. "We mean you no harm," he called out to the little creature. "We've only lost our way, and would like to know the direction of the nearest settlement."

"Now you've done it," Anakin muttered. "You should never let on to people in Tatooine that you're weak in any way."

The Jawa reappeared, poking its head over the sand dune cautiously. It waved its little arm, calling out something to the two in a high-pitched garble.

Anakin turned to his master in annoyance. "See? He's saying he'll show us the way… for a price."

"But we don't have anything to give them," Rey piped up. The Jedi turned in surprise, having not noticed that the rest of their companions had joined them outside the ship.

"Exactly." Anakin folded his arms across his chest.

The Jawa scuttled closer warily before pointing a tiny finger at the smoking _Falcon_ , speaking in rapid syllables. Han bristled. "We are not giving that thing the _Falcon_ , if that's what it wants!"

Anakin shook his head. "No, he's talking about the engine. He sees it's damaged."

"The realspace engine?" Leia tapped her thumbnail against her teeth thoughtfully. "Does he want it? I bet he could do _something_ with it. Trade it to someone who can sell it for parts or something." The small alien nodded eagerly, waving its arms expressively at the thick black smoke curling from the engines.

"What? No!" Han burst out. "I can repair it! I'm not letting that thing get its paws on my ship!" he insisted heatedly.

Leia turned to him in exasperation. "Relax, it's just the realspace engine, not the ship itself."

"But it's like taking the heart out of the _Falcon_!" Han persisted.

"What you're _trying_ to say is that you've patched up that old piece of scrap metal so many times that you've become a bit fond of it." Leia raised an eyebrow with a smirk, tilting her head to the side.

"I've worked so hard to keep her alive," Han moaned. "I remember the exact reason for every modification…"

Chewie gave a mournful howl, patting his friend on the head comfortingly.

"Which is why this is the perfect time to tell it goodbye," Leia sighed. "Han, even you know that engine's past saving now. Even the patches have patches." As though to prove her point, the engine gave a smoky belch, whining pitifully as sparks peppered the sand. The very corner of her lip twitched slightly. "Give it a befitting end. The sacrifice is worth it."

Han sighed, throwing his hands into the air in defeat. "Ugh, fine!" He wagged a finger at the princess. "But we'd better find a new engine soon. She's just a useless skeleton of a ship without one!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the Jawa hopped up eagerly as several more cloaked heads emerged over the dunes. The first Jawa gestured with its arms, directing the others as they waddled to the ship, swarming over it like a pack of eager dogs around a bone. They worked with a fervent speed, deftly removing the smoking engine and struggling to drag the heavy piece of metal onto a motorized barge. Han scrutinized the creatures suspiciously as they worked, making certain they _touched nothing but the engine_.

"Well, that was fast," Rey commented as the Jawas glanced up expectantly, ready to go.

The head Jawa waved an impatient arm, indicating for the humans to follow them.

"Wait." Leia turned to glance back at the ship with a troubled expression. "Luke is still in an unstable condition. I'm afraid he's not going to last long out here in the sun until we can get him into a more stabilized condition."

"He's still unconscious?" Obi-Wan frowned.

Leia nodded. "Yes. Also, it's going to be difficult to carry him anywhere."

Obi-Wan thought for a moment, not at all eager to split the group again after what had happened last time. "In that case, I suppose we'll have to leave someone here to look after him," he said reluctantly.

There was silence for a moment, as remaining out in the middle of the desert alone was not exactly what anyone would call appealing.

Finally, Leia shrugged. "I'll stay."

"I will too," Han spoke up immediately. Leia shot him a quick look, but didn't say anything.

"Time," Poe added, raising his hand to indicate his agreement. The others started, having forgotten all about him.

"What's wrong with _you?_ " Rey queried of her friend in confusion.

Anakin huffed. "We think he hit his head somewhere. Seems the only thing he can say now is 'time, time, time' over and over again."

Poe rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "Time." He looked sulky.

"Are you sure he's going to be fine with you guys?" Padmé spoke up timidly. "I mean, you've already got Luke to look after…"

Poe raised an eyebrow in indignation at what she was implying, opening his mouth to speak but stopping himself just in time, shutting it quickly with a sour look.

Leia shot him a quick glance. "Let him be." The others noted the finality in her tone, and left it at that.

Obi-Wan hesitated. "All right, fine. But are you absolutely sure there is no way we'll be able to contact one another in case… well, in case something happens? I'm afraid flares would be too conspicuous out here. We don't know who could be watching." He ran a hand down his face wearily.

"Awroonaa…" Chewie perked up, turning to Han suddenly. "Roooeeenoooor…"

Han started. "Why didn't you mention that _before?_ " he demanded of his furry copilot.

Chewie shrugged. "Rhoof."

Han sprinted back to the ship, reaching over the pilot's chair to shuffle around in the compartments underneath the dashboard. Tossing aside a rusted flashlight, an old E-11 stormtrooper blaster, and a bunch of other junk he honestly didn't know _how_ got into his storage compartment, he finally pulled back, triumphant in his search.

Gripping the two dented radios tightly as he ran back to the others, he nodded to Chewie. "You were right, pal. Forgot all about these babies." He handed one of the radios to Obi-Wan, tucking the other into his belt. "Chewie and I never really use these, so I'd forgotten all about them. They're a little banged-up, but they'll do. They work too, last I checked."

"Right." Obi-Wan clipped the radio to his own belt, alongside his lightsaber.

The Jawas made gestures of impatience, and Anakin agreed. "Come on, we don't have all day! We've got to find that Sith and get him out of here before he does too much damage!"

Reluctantly, the others turned to follow them. With one final, uncertain glance back, they began the slow trudge through the desert after the Jawas, leaving Han, Leia, Chewie, and Poe to watch as they finally disappeared over the dunes.

* * *

"I hate sand." Anakin muttered after a while, and soon the others had to agree with him.

It was tough going, and the sand was hot, gritty, and choking. Sticking to the sweat on their necks. Coating their throats. Stinging their eyes. The twin suns beat hot overhead, the landscape rippling in heat. The sand shifted under their feet, making every step difficult and arduous. It was no wonder then that Finn suddenly gave a whoop of relief, having been the first to spot the sight of buildings off in the distance.

Having done their part, the Jawas waved goodbye, chattering excitedly with one another as they continued on with the engine, leaving the humans alone. They stood in the middle of the bustling activity of the small trading settlement for a moment, wondering what to do first.

"I have a few credits on me, but not much, so this might take a bit of luck." Obi-Wan slid his hands into his pockets with a frown. "Keep your eyes open, everyone, for Kylo Ren." The others nodded, fanning out to examine the various stalls set up along the roadside.

Padmé bent down to study a display of non-perishable emergency rations, Anakin impatiently hovering by her elbow. She just happened to glance up, across the stand, at the other side of the street— and gasped.

She caught Anakin's arm, yanking him down beside her.

"What? What is it?" Anakin craned his neck, attempted to get up, but Padmé pulled him back.

"Ani, _get down!_ It's us!"

"What?" Anakin turned to her in bewilderment. The equally-baffled owner of the stand peered over at them in perplexity.

"It's us!" Padmé hissed, shoving Anakin's head lower. "On the other side of the stand!"

"What do you mean, ' _us'?_ " Anakin squirmed out of her grip, attempting to peer over the edge of the stand.

"You, me, and Qui-Gon Jinn!" Padmé's own curiosity got the better over her, and she poked her head up beside Anakin's cautiously.

There, strolling casually down the opposite side of the street, were Qui-Gon, Padmé, and a happily skipping nine-year-old Anakin.

Anakin dropped down again with his back against the stall, a bit dazed. "So the time pool really _does_ work. Great nebulae, this is really _weird_."

"Well, at least we have an idea of what time period we're in," Padmé breathed. "This must be close to the day we met. You know, when we had to stop at the shop where you worked as a slave."

"Mos Espa," Anakin nodded. "My birthplace."

Padmé inhaled sharply as she continued to watch the others walk past. "It's so strange to see Qui-Gon still alive. I mean, instead of a ghost."

A strange look passed over Anakin's face, and he dug his shoulder blades further into the metal stall behind him. "My mother is still alive right now too," he murmured softly.

"Do you _mind?_ " The merchant leaned over the end of the stall again crossly.

Padmé gasped, suddenly sitting up straighter. "Obi-Wan! We have to warn him, he doesn't know!"

Afraid to call out for fear of attracting the approaching figures' notice, she began waving her arms frantically, striving to catch the attention of the Jedi master, who had been examining the stalls across the street. Anakin joined her in performing a series of ridiculous hand motions before, finally, Obi-Wan turned in their direction in bafflement. His lips moved: _What are you doing?_ By then it was too late.

"Obi-Wan!"

Obi-Wan stiffened, recognizing the voice in a split second of horror. He spun to face his old Master as the man continued to advance toward him with a slight frown. His eyes widened, perceiving the situation in a flash, before he recovered at admirable speed. "Y-yes, Master?" he stammered.

"What are you doing here?" Qui-Gon questioned, as Padmé and little Anakin peered around him curiously. "You were to remain with the ship."

Obi-Wan hurried to hide his dismay. "I… I went for a walk, is all." Feeling full well the painful weakness of that excuse, he dug his hands into his robes, searching desperately for another. "I… well… I sensed a… a danger hanging about you. So. I came. You know, to check on you." The red flush of alarm across his face doubled nicely as a blush of youthful embarrassment, and he played it for all its worth with an added shame-faced duck of his head in Padmé's direction. "And the handmaiden, of course."

Qui-Gon's lip twitched, and Obi-Wan knew from longtime experience that it was a struggle to suppress laughter. He knew the feeling all too well himself with his own apprentice, Anakin. "Well, as you can see, we are safe and well." Qui-Gon spoke solemnly, but his twinkling eyes belied his stern admonishment. "I appreciate your concern, but next time, don't act on mere presumptions. It could prove dangerous to you and your companions. You were given a specific order, and you disobeyed it. You must learn to control your feelings."

"Yes, Master." Obi-Wan hung his head appropriately. "I will return to the ship at once."

An idea occurred to him as he turned to go, and he acted on it quickly, spinning back around. "You won't… you won't mention this to anyone?" he queried hopefully. "I have learned my lesson, Master. I will not do it again."

This time Qui-Gon lost the battle with his smile, but he quickly hid it under a furrowed brow. "I will think on it." He folded his arms across his chest. "Now go. We will be along shortly."

Obi-Wan nodded mutely, ducking around to sprint away down the street.

Padmé and Anakin watched as Qui-Gon shook his head, watching his apprentice go. From their vantage point underneath the market stall, they were just close enough to hear him mutter to himself. "Strange. He's usually not so errant. He's usually such a stickler for orders." Shaking his head again with a betrayingly fond smile, he began walking again, and little Anakin and Padmé followed.

"We're coming our way!" Padmé dug her fingers into Anakin's arm, and the two dove to the other side of the stand. They staggered to their feet, pelting full-length down the opposite street where they soon caught up with Obi-Wan, and the three did their best to put as much distance between themselves and themselves as possible.

"That was close," Padmé breathed, when they had decided it was safe to slow to a walk again.

"Too close," Anakin agreed.

Obi-Wan smashed his fist into his palm angrily, only just now letting out his breath in a forceful exhale. "I was a _fool_ not to suspect something like that would happen."

"Of all the places we could have landed," Anakin grumbled. "My home planet— _at the exact time_ we're all there as well."

Obi-Wan shook his head, swiping at his glistening forehead with the back of his arm. "We're going to have to be much more careful."


	11. Chapter 11

Han and Leia sat across from one another in the medical ward, both staring off into space with nothing better to do. Chewie's deafening snores drifted in from the cockpit, where he'd fallen asleep sprawled across both the pilot's and copilot's chairs. Poe sat in the booth by the Dejarik board with his chin on his fist, tracing the black and white sections with his fingertip and a bored expression.

Finally, Han surfaced from his thoughts, speaking them out loud. "I don't like this." He uncrossed his legs, placing both feet on the floor. "We're too vulnerable here. We're like sitting ducks without an engine."

"You got a better idea, flyboy?" Leia snapped. "Luke won't make ten minutes out in that sun!"

"I didn't mean it that way!" Han protested, throwing his hands up defensively. "I just... don't like this, okay? I'm allowed to express my thoughts on the situation, aren't I?"

Leia turned away, remaining grudgingly silent.

Over in the cockpit Chewie gave a particularly loud snore, and a series of quiet taps came from Poe rapping his fingers against the Dejarik board methodically.

Leia dropped her head, muttering to herself. "I just wonder how we got ourselves into this mess." She made a broad gesture, blaster in hand, and brushed wisps of hair away from her face with the back of her wrist. "Running around doing errands for some long-dead Jedi ghosts... I don't even know why they dragged us along, anyway." Shoving her hands into her lap, she glared at the floor. "This is Jedi business— _we_ shouldn't even be here! Just look at Luke!" She stood, jabbing a finger at the medical bed beside them, at her friend's pale face. She grit her teeth. "This wasn't supposed to happen to him."

Leia inhaled slowly. "The rebels on Hoth need us. They need _me_. It's such a precarious time in the Rebellion right now, they need _leadership_. How could we have left them?" With a weary sigh, she dropped into her seat again, dropping her hands to stare at them in her lap.

Han massaged his shoulder uncomfortably, unsure of how to answer. All he'd really been worried about was that enormous bounty Jabba the Hutt had placed over his head. He hadn't once thought of the fate of the Rebellion, or the freedom of the galaxy, or anything, really.

It figured, he thought ruefully, that while Leia was concerned about her duty to lead in the emancipation of the galaxy, he'd been more concerned with saving his own neck.

He recalled the conversation with Rey on the Falcon's gangplank only hours ago.

" _You're saying I'm a hero? Pfft, not a chance. I just got dragged along into the thing, that's all."_

" _If you don't care about the Rebellion, then why did you stay?"_

"Why _have_ I stayed this long?" he muttered to himself. If he didn't pay off that debt, Jabba would be sending out bounty hunters to bring him back, and it sure as shooting wasn't going to be all in one piece, either. _So why hadn't he left?_ He had more than enough money to compensate the crime lord. He had had multiple opportunities to leave. And he just… hadn't. He'd been planning for weeks, rehearsing exactly what he was going to say to explain it all to Leia. Yet he still hadn't done a thing.

He glanced up at her— at her cheeks flushed with hot anger, her lips tense in a line of agitation. Then he turned to look at Luke, whose own pallid face in contrast was drained of all color completely. He'd met plenty of acquaintances on his intergalactic adventures with Chewie. Yet they'd all been just that— mere acquaintances. Partners one day, headed in opposite directions the next. It had been so _easy_.

What was about these two that was so different? What made it so difficult for him to simply turn around and walk off without a backwards glance?

His thoughts were interrupted by an earsplitting shriek that shattered the silence around them into a million jagged shards.

Han and Leia leapt to their feet, a significant clatter from the cockpit area indicating that Chewie had done so as well in a more dramatized fashion. Poe's head jerked upright from where he had been lying on the Dejarik board, blinking in bewilderment.

"What was that?" Leia barked, gripping her blaster.

Chewie barely had time to roar something of similar pertinence, before they all were thrown to the ground as the _Falcon_ was rocked with a violent blow. Warning lights flashed and alarms blared as the ship took another, more powerful hit, tossing its occupants into the air like ragdolls.

"There's something out there attacking the ship!" Han exclaimed.

"No, duh!" Leia snapped at him.

The _Falcon_ 's stern lifted into the air, sending Leia, Han, and Poe tumbling into the cockpit on top of Chewie. Luke's limp body slipped from the medical bed, sliding down the vertical surface of the floor to land with a painful _thump_ against the jumbled bodies in the cockpit.

His eyes snapped open. "Owww…"

The others turned to him in shock, momentarily distracted from their tangled predicament. "Luke!" Leia struggled to peer over Chewie's furry forearm. "You're awake!"

"And regretting it with every passing second," Luke moaned.

As though in answer, the levitated end of the ship was dropped, sending the hapless passengers on the other end into the ceiling. There was a horrific screech of metal, and the five picked themselves up gingerly— only to turn and find a pair of enormous, slavering jaws working away furiously at the cockpit window.

"AAAAARRRAAAG!" Chewbacca jumped back with a yelp.

"You said it, Chewie!" Han stumbled backwards, catching himself on the Wookie's arm. "What is that thing?!"

The creature pulled back, so that the sunlight glinted off of a horned serpentine head atop a slender, flexible neck. "A… a krayt dragon?" Luke winced as Leia helped him unsteadily to his feet. "W… we're on Tatooine?"

"You've got a lot to catch up on, kid," Han shot him a glance with a wry curl of his lip.

The dragon dove in for another attack, and they were once again thrown into a jumbled pile. Leia shoved Poe's foot out of her face as she struggled to sit up again. "I don't know about all you space jockeys, but I'm not waiting for that thing to rip the ship to pieces around us!"

Han disentangled himself from Chewie's limbs. "If I can get it in range, I bet I can blast it with the _Falcon_ 's superior gun bay!" Struggling to his feet, he added in a mutter, "That is, unless that crazy Jedi kid didn't damage _it_ beyond repair as well…"

"Rhooargg!" Chewie barked.

Han fumbled with the controls at the gun bay. "Chewie's right, the quad cannon won't be able to reach the dragon at the angle it's standing right now. We'll have to lure it somewhere we have clear range!"

"Leave that to me." Leia sprinted out of the ship. Luke, catching on to her intentions, stumbled after her.

"Wait, _Leia!_ "

She spun on him fiercely. "Go back, Luke! You're still recovering from the poison, you're in no condition to be out here!"

Luke swayed a bit on his feet, gritting his teeth. "Come on Leia, we haven't got time to argue about this, and you know it. I'm not letting you go out there alone."

Leia bristled— yet she knew Luke was right. They didn't have time for this. The _Falcon_ gave another lurch with a snarl from the krayt dragon, and Leia slipped out of the ship without another word. Luke followed.

The two climbed up the side of the ship, pulling themselves up so that they were standing on top of the _Falcon_ 's hull. "I'll take this end, you take the other," Luke told Leia, and the rebel princess simply nodded curtly.

Stumbling a bit as she ran across to the opposite side of the bucking hull, she stopped, planting her feet firmly against the scarred metal. Raising her blaster, she aimed carefully for just below the dragon's eye. Catching sight of her, the creature glanced up— and she squeezed the trigger.

A sharp report echoed throughout the desert, followed by a wail of surprise and pain. The krayt dragon pawed at its eye furiously, before scrambling up the ship's hull after her with a gutteral snarl.

"Now would be a good time to send it your end, Luke!" Leia ducked as enormous claws raked the air above her head.

"I'm trying!" Luke struggled to steady his wobbling hand; squeezing his blaster handle harder only made the tremors worse. "It's hard to know where to aim when there's two of everything!"

"Shoot for the middle one!" The dragon pounced and Leia tumbled out of the way, strings of saliva from the creature's slavering mouth slinging past her ear.

Luke focused his scopes the best he could, whispered a prayer, and fired a couple wild shots in the dragon's general direction. They missed the creature by quite a bit, but it still managed to do the trick. The krayt dragon turned in surprise, stopping in its tracks. It hesitated for a moment, unsure of which of the irritating little humans to go after first.

Meanwhile down inside the Falcon's gun bay, Han gripped the controls with white knuckles. "Could've waited until I was ready to fire first…" he muttered. "Chewie! Prime the auxiliary lock systems!"

"Rooooaaaaggghh!"

"What do you mean, 'it's damaged'?!"

Chewbacca displayed a mass of blackened and smoking wires with a mournful howl.

"Not those Porgs again!" Han leapt out of the gunbay, swearing loudly. "What are you waiting for, repair them already!"

"Nooorroogh!"

"Let me see that," Han shoved his copilot out of the way, taking hold of the damaged cables. "You watch the kids! Make sure they don't get themselves killed!" Chewie nodded, stepping over to peer out the gunbay window at the proceedings above anxiously.

"Stupid dragon, over here!" Luke taunted, waving his free arm wildly. His legs trembled violently, and he felt like he was about to be sick, the world spinning around him in a nauseous blur of colors. But it was too late to back down now: Leia needed him. He fired again, this time hitting the beast in the shoulder. The dragon spun with a furious scream, slicing gouges into the metal hull with its deadly claws as it turned for Luke.

Han winced at the frightful shriek of metal above. "What's going on up there? Chewie! How are they doing?" He yelped and cursed again as a spark from the smoking wires shot him in the finger.

"Arararaghhh…"

Han stuffed his burnt finger in his mouth. "But they're still _alive_ , right? _Right?_ "

Above them, Luke ignited his lightsaber, reveling in the sudden warmth and strength it sent surging through his body. For a moment, he focused intently on the humming blue blade in front of him, and his dizziness lessened. "That's right…" He waved the saber slowly from side to side as the dragon crouched, watching him intently. "Over here…"

"Luke, you hardly even know how to use that thing!" Leia snapped, breaking him out of his reverie. "Use your blaster instead!"

"I know what I'm doing!" he yelled back, annoyed.

"No, you don't!"

"Yes, I do!"

"No, you— oh, why hasn't Han fired already?!" Leia burst out.

Han yanked his finger out of his mouth, yelling up at her through the ceiling. "Working on it, sweetheart!"


	12. Chapter 12

As all this took place far out in the desert, the rest of the companions had just finished up a less-exciting-but-just-as-exhausting bartering experience. The result, a satisfactorily large bag of non-perishable food items, bounced inside Finn's backpack as he hurried along behind the others.

"And _that_ is why Jedi are not in the marketing business," Anakin said matter-of-factly.

"That took forever! I thought the merchant was never going to give in," Rey complained. She glanced over at her panting friend. "You sure you don't want me to carry that, Finn? It's pretty heavy."

"I'm good," Finn gave her a grin and an exaggerated thumbs-up. "I got it."

Obi-Wan nodded to Rey's earlier comment. "I have to say, however, that I was quite surprised when he finally _suddenly_ agreed to take my credits, which was barely half of what that bag is worth." He caught Anakin's smug look with a frown. "You had something to do with it, didn't you."

Anakin shrugged carelessly. "Like Rey said, it was taking forever. We can't afford to leave the others alone with the ship for too long. Besides," he raised an eyebrow slyly, " _He_ was the one who was tired of us and wanted to finalize the deal. All I had to do was _influence_ him a bit."

"Hey, look at that weird cloud in the distance," Finn commented. "It looks like it keeps getting bigger." The others, startled, turned in the direction of his pointing finger, discovering that sure enough, a voluminous, malleable shape seemed to be creeping up the horizon, growing steadily larger. And closer.

"That's not a cloud," Anakin growled. "That's a sandstorm!"

"Just perfect," Rey snapped. "And here we are out in the middle of nowhere, with no shelter!"

Already the wind had begun to pick up, tossing gritty sand into their faces and blinding them. It was difficult to see anything.

Obi-Wan spoke through his sleeve with a cough. "Judging by how long we've been walking, I'd say we'd be better off continuing on toward the ship rather than going back to the settlement."

"And head straight into the storm?" Padmé had her collar pulled up over her mouth so that only her eyes were showing, squinted against the raging sand. "I don't know…"

"Well, we're not going to make much progress simply standing out here and discussing things, are we?" Anakin pointed out. "We've got to keep moving."

They were all startled by the sudden thrum of an engine over their heads, and instinctively flattened themselves to the ground. Diving down in front of them, a silver-grey spacecraft materialized out of the swirling sand, harsh, jarring rays of sun glinting off of its silvery back. Indistinct shouting cut through the roar of the wind and the ship's engine, followed by the unmistakable buzz of a lightsaber clash.

Anakin attempted vainly to shade his eyes from the sand as he peered through the haze, but he was just able to make out two blades of light— one green, and one red— dancing back and forth in a heated battle.

Rey's voice sounded by his ear. "Who is _that?_ "

"It must be Ren!" Anakin scrambled to his feet. "He must have found Luke and the others!"

He began to run, slipping and stumbling on the shifting sand, but was immediately gripped from behind and tackled into the sand. He struggled in indignation, but Obi-Wan's voice hissed in his ear. "Are you _mad?_ We can't just jump out there! It can't be them— Luke's lightsaber is blue, not green!"

Anakin squirmed out of his grip. "Who can it be, then?" he demanded. "Huh? What other Jedi are there on this planet besides us?"

As though attempting to helpfully answer his question, the sand parted for a split second, allowing a brief, unobscured view of the duelers in the distance— and the master and apprentice immediately recognized the tall, lithe body of Qui-Gon Jinn. The second figure was just as easy to recall, his distinct features of trademark red and black carved across the pages of their memory in deep, bloodred ink: Darth Maul.

Anakin let out his breath in a low whistle, grateful, for once, for his master's quick thinking. "That could have been bad. This is before… _it_ happened, isn't it?" He shot Obi-Wan an uncertain look. "I mean… they both get away this time… right?"

Obi-Wan nodded mutely, hiding the churning feelings that rose up inside of him like a boiling pot of water. It was extremely unnerving to observe the battle for the second time, yet without the deep-set anxiety that his master would get through the encounter alive. It was the strangest feeling to watch the tense showdown while at the same time already knowing of the outcome. Knowing that his master would not die just yet.

That his death was reserved for another time. Another place.

The two watched as the silver spacecraft hovered above Jinn and Maul as the former continued to back up until finally giving an impressive jump, landing on the ship's gangplank even as it already began to close. With a whir of engines, the ship took off, leaving Maul alone.

The Sith apprentice watched as the ship disappeared into the sandstorm, pointed teeth bared in what could either have been a grin or a snarl.

Behind them, Rey reached out, gripping Finn's shoulder tightly. "Wow, he gives me the creeps. Who _is_ that?"

"I don't know," Finn whispered back, squirming uncomfortably under the weight of his backpack as it sought to press him further into the baking sand. "But I hope he leaves soon, so we can get up. I'm getting cooked, and my knee is killing me."

"Darth Maul," Padmé whispered softly, and they turned to look at her. "He's another Sith apprentice from our— Anakin, Master Kenobi, and my— time. He attacked our group of freedom fighters on Naboo… and killed Obi-Wan's master. Qui-Gon."

Rey felt a chill slide down her sunburnt and perspiration-soaked body. She shifted deeper into the burning sand as if to hide— hide from his eyes, which seemed to peer straight through the swirling particles, directly at her.

Still the Sith remained where he was, still surveying his surroundings with half-slit eyes like those of a snake's.

"Why won't he leave?" Anakin hissed. "Is this normal? Is he supposed to stand here for so long?"

"He can sense us," Obi-Wan said suddenly. "Hide your presence. Bury your emotions and feelings. Don't let him sense our positions."

Still Maul looked suspicious. Turning, he began to slowly make his way— in their direction. The two Jedi glanced at one another, their eyes communicating in a way their voices were unable to: _Rey. He sensed Rey._

The teen was inexperienced, and therefore vulnerable for anyone to read any overpowering emotion she felt at that moment. And right now, she was frightened.

She turned to Finn again, her grip on his shoulder tightening painfully. "He's coming this way. He's coming this way! What do we _do?"_

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Padmé sliding one hand to rest on her blaster as the Sith continued to approach them, carefully flicking the weapon off of safety. Finn, his forehead glistening with anxiety, gripped his own weapon, clenching it between trembling fingers.

Rey had no time to grab her own firearm. Her arm slid back, fingertips brushing against the first weapon they encountered at her belt, closing around the slender metal cylinder.

A shadow fell over them, the glaring suns momentarily blocked as he stood over them, his bared fangs curled into a mocking leer. She barely had time to register the confusion, the _hesitation_ in Darth Maul's yellow eyes, before her finger found the red ignition button. With a buzz of blue light, she witnessed the uncertainty in the Sith's eyes turn immediately to hatred. To satisfaction. To _bloodlust_.

She was on her feet even as he swung his own saber, slipping out of the way of the first blow before the Sith had time to redirect his aim. She swung her lightsaber over her head and he brought his up to meet it— sparks exploded in all directions as the two blades met.

"Rey!" Blaster fire scorched the sand, open fear hindering Finn's ability to aim correctly.

The sand shifted, and Rey lost her footing for a moment, catching herself with her free hand. Maul was on her in an instant, and she barely managed to roll out of the path of his deadly arc of vermillion light.

It was all wrong. She could feel it already.

Instead of the conflicted, distracted, _weakened_ opponent she'd had in Kylo Ren, she was instead fighting a well-trained combatant with only one thought in his mind— to kill her. She stumbled, falling to one knee, only just managing to ward off the attacks all around her. The humming length of blue in her hand was all there was between her and death, and she clung to it, infusing the last measures of her strength into its being. It was as though it were a part of her, a mere extension of her own arm. Padmé was on her feet now, firing at Darth Maul with far superior aim than Finn, so that the Sith was forced to abandon Rey in order to block the threatening bolts.

The distraction was what Rey needed to return to her feet. She stumbled back, blade outstretched, chest heaving. Ready. Maul turned on her with a snarl, and the ensuing blows were so swift and mobile that they were a mere blur of color. Rey herself was unable to keep up. Her lightsaber moved as though it had a mind of its own, blocking blow after blow. Countering blow after blow.

Then it was gone.

It took her a moment to register its absence, the whish of its tumbling arc through the parched air, the dull thump of its impact against the gritty sand. Far out of reach.

She heard Finn call out her name in desperation. Saw Darth Maul's lips curl into a grin, baring his yellowing teeth in a triumphant grimace. Felt his kick drive into her stomach, her knees crumpling underneath her in an acquiescence of defeat.

She heard the sudden hum, the _whoosh_ of a lightsaber as it arced through the air.

And Darth Maul fell, sliced cleanly in two.

Nothing visibly _off_ happened as the two halves of the body hit the ground. But deep in the pit of everyone's stomach there was a sense of violation. Of imbalance. Of _wrong_.

Rey, Anakin, and Obi-Wan stared, the latter two with their lightsabers still ignited and outstretched. The stared at the body of their former assailant. Then they stared at one another, the full meaning of what had just come to pass too difficult to comprehend. It was too alien. Too inconceivable. Too _wrong_.

Finally Rey spoke, her voice rough. Choked. "What… what did we just do?"


	13. Chapter 13

On top of the hull of the _Millennium Falcon_ , Luke held his lightsaber aloft provokingly. "Yeah, that's right… over here!"

He took an unsteady step forward, nausea threatening to claim him yet again. The sunlight was too bright, every sound too loud, every movement too fast. His legs wobbled as the krayt dragon ground its teeth together audibly in a nightmare of grating fangs, sliding its claws down the metal hull with a screech that caused him physical pain.

He grit his teeth with a snarl equal in savagery as the dragon's itself. "Come on, already!" He screamed at it. "Why are you just standing there? Come _on!_ " His knees failed him, dropping him with a crash to the surface of the ship's hull.

"Luke!" Leia was helpless to move to his rescue, cornered between the snarling dragon and the edge of the ship.

The dragon turned and pounced— not on Luke, but on her. Caught off guard, she stumbled, unable to leap out of the way in time as the creature's clawed foot came in contact with her shoulder, flinging her away from the ship and sending her crashing into the sand below.

Rage coursed through Luke. "No!" He leapt to his feet, suddenly fuelled on by his hatred for the creature, that creature that _dared_ touch Leia. The dragon turned on him with a roar, and he ran at it, leaping into the air for an attack so quick that he even surprised himself.

Suddenly a new feeling, a feeling of _power_ , descended upon him. It was followed immediately by a strong sense of _wrong_.

He didn't know why anything would be wrong. Because all of the sudden, he felt _great_.

The power flowed through him, sharpening his senses, enhancing his reflexes. He jumped again, higher than would be normally possible for him, and performed a double flip, just because he felt like it. Landing squarely on the dragon's back, he gripped the creature tightly by the horns on the back of its head. The krayt dragon squealed in surprise, before bounding around in a frenzied attempt to buck him off.

He hung on with a firm determination and superb balance, reveling in the feeling of dominance he was exerting over his enemy. Swinging his lightsaber back, he cut two long lacerations in the creature's side, setting his teeth at the dragon's howl of pain and fury.

He would make it pay. He would make it pay for what it did to Leia.

"Luke! _Luke!_ " He barely registered the voice, and he didn't heed it, unable to see for the red mist clouding his vision. He hit the beast again and again, the mist becoming thicker and more obscuring with every shriek of fear from his enemy.

" _Luke!_ " Suddenly he was on the ground, the cold, hard surface of the ship's hull beneath him, the world spinning violently. Someone's hands were on his face, sliding downward to support his head, struggling to pull him into a sitting position.

"You _idiot!_ I told you not to come out here with me!"

It took him a moment to realize that the face swimming at the borders of his vision was Leia's. He moved his lips, his tongue feeling dry and swollen against the roof of his mouth. "Huh."

"Just 'huh'? Is that all you've got to say for yourself?!" Leia's voice shook with anger. "You can hardly stand upright, but then you decide it's a good idea to jump onto the creature? That poison must make you do weird things too, because then you start _beating_ it, instead of simply putting it out of its misery! _What the Dagobah_ is wrong with you?!"

 _Dagobah?_ Luke lifted his head weakly, attempting to peer over Leia's arm around him. The krayt dragon lay in a heap where it had fallen, beheaded and sliced neatly into several smoking hunks of flesh.

"You… you killed it?"

"Yes," Leia snapped, shoving her lightsaber back onto her belt angrily. "Or else you would have continued to torture the wretched creature, which you know is not the Jedi way!"

"I… I got angry." Luke fumbled with the words confusedly. "It hurt you, so I… I hurt it."

"Well, _I'm_ fine!" Leia hissed. "You could have at least confirmed that before you lost your head completely!"

Luke struggled to sit up. "I'm sorry, Leia," he said, suddenly deeply ashamed. "I lost my head, just as you said. I shouldn't have done that. It's not the Jedi way."

Leia softened a bit. "It's alright," She helped him upright gently. "You're unwell. Even if Master Yoda were here, he would say that you were not completely in control of yourself at the moment."

Luke shook his head. "No. But I should have been. Master Yoda hasn't been training us for 19 years to have us lose control when we need it the most."

"Come on, let's get back into the ship," Leia said. "You'll feel better once you get out of the sun." She helped her twin down inside the _Falcon_ as he leaned on her shoulder unsteadily.

Han glanced up as the two came in, his tanned features falling into an expression of extreme annoyance. "Why didn't you two bozos just tell me you could kill the thing yourself, instead of making me sort through this nest at lightspeed?!" He dropped the mass of wires he'd been working on in irritation, shoving his burnt finger back into his mouth peevishly.

Chewbacca gave a growl of agreement, shooting the two a look of distaste as he patted Han on the head comfortingly.

"Never mind," Luke attempted to lift his face into a confident smile, but only succeeded in making a weary grimace. "What's important is that you and your copilot are alive." He sat down with a groan on the booth behind the Dejarik board.

"We are forever in your debt," Han replied apathetically, and Chewie made a chuffing sound that could either have been agreement or suppressed laughter.

"Don't mention it, Mr... uh…" Luke's mind went blank.

"It's Solo," Han rolled his eyes. "Han Solo."

Luke waved a dismissive hand, the beginnings of a massive migraine starting their approach on him. "Oh yes, I'd forgotten. I think you told us when we first met on this mission."

"I did." Han's eyes narrowed as he studied the two with growing confusion. "Annnd… remind me just why we're here, on a… _mission_ together…?"

"You know, I was wondering the same thing." Leia finally spoke, her voice icy as she surveyed the man and his surrounding ship with disdain. "Why on Dagobah would Master Yoda send us on a mission with a _smuggler?_ "

"Well, I didn't ask to work with you two Jedi brats, either," Han shot back.

Poe pulled himself into a sitting position where he had lain for quite some time in the cockpit unnoticed by the others, having been knocked unconscious during the krayt dragon's first attacks on the ship. He clutched his head with a grimace, blinking several times as he brushed his flattened hair out of his eyes with a shaky hand. As the sound of the other's voices reached him he winced, shaking his head to clear it.

"Come on, Luke." Leia seized her brother's hand in a steely grip. "I've had enough of this guy."

"But— the mission!" Luke stammered confusedly.

Leia jabbed a furious finger at him. "Master Yoda never said we'd be working with half-witted flyboys like this one!" She turned, dragging him out of the booth. "Come on, we don't need their help, we can handle this mission alone!"

Poe blinked again, wondering if what he'd just seen was truly there or merely a result of his blurry vision.

Leia had a _lightsaber?_

"Wait a sec, where are you two going?" Han demanded as the twins continued toward the door. "I'm all for seeing the back of you, but if I remember anything from our few and vague instructions on this trip, it was that we weren't supposed to split up!"

Luke called over his shoulder, as it seemed Leia was too riled up to answer. "Don't worry about us. My sister and I have been trained from birth for this sort of thing. I think we've got it handled."

Poe started, staring from one to the other in bewilderment. Trained from birth? Master Yoda? _Sister?_ How did Luke know that? From Poe's experience, the legend was that the two hadn't even known they were twins until the fateful Battle of Endor.

There was most definitely something wrong here. He had to tell the others.


	14. Chapter 14

**Guys... I'm so sorry. I hate making excuses for why I haven't been posting in a looooong time, but this time I have a perfectly good one: I just wasn't feeling it. I was a bit drained, creatively speaking, and this break gave me the opportunity to muse things over for a bit.**

 **Most importantly, however, it gave me a chance to work on _this_ : the fully reformatted and (hopefully) improved version of _The Pool of Time_. Thank you so much to all of you who have stuck with me throughout this journey; your support means so much to me. You can go back and reread the entire thing if you want to, but it's not really necessary; the only things I've tweaked are very minor and simply help move the plot in an ideal direction. If you decide you like it better this way: Yay! I'm so happy. If not... I apologize, because this is how it is going to stay from here on. I understand that it'll take some getting used to reading it this way, but I believe that ultimately it will be better. **

**Again, thank you to every follower, favoriter, and commenter; you are what inspires me to continue working on this story, and I appreciate all of you indefinitely. I hope you all are having as much fun with it as I am.**

 **Without further ado, I present to you Chapter 14 (Formally known as 15).**

* * *

"What… what did we just do?"

"Rey! Are you okay?!" Finn's arms were around her in an instant, struggling to pull her to her feet.

"We just… we just killed…" Rey couldn't form anything. The very idea simply refused to exist peacefully in her mind.

"I, uh…" Obi-Wan de-ignited his lightsaber, aghast. "Oh, no. Was I not supposed to do that?"

"No, you weren't!" Rey exploded, throwing Finn off of her. "This wasn't supposed to happen _at all!_ " She turned from one Jedi to the next in desperation. "All right, what happened? Did anything change?!"

"Change?" Obi-Wan rubbed the back of his neck in bewilderment. "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that."

"I mean, what did we mess up!?" Rey waved her arms wildly. "What— do any of you _feel_ differently? Weird? Abnormal? _Wrong?_ "

Anakin crossed his arms in annoyance. "I'm not sure I quite understand you. We saved you... right? You would have died if Master Kenobi here hadn't killed this guy first." He nudged Darth Maul's body with his toe.

"' _That guy'_ is Darth Maul!"

There was no reaction. The two only looked mildly curious. "Oh… so you knew him?"

"No! Of course not!" Rey wailed. " _You_ are supposed to know him!" When the others looked confused and still entirely lost, she drew her hands down her face in despair.

The realization hit her, her hyperactive brain noting the tiniest of errors to point out, and she pounced on the detail like a cat on a mouse. "Aha! 'Master Kenobi'?" she demanded. "Since when have you called your master 'Kenobi'? He's always been 'Master' or 'Master Obi-Wan', not 'Master Kenobi'!"

Anakin and Obi-Wan turned to stare at one another for a moment, bewildered. Then they both began to laugh. Rey wanted to slap them.

"I think you're a little mixed up," Anakin snorted. "Yes, Master Kenobi is a master, but he's not _mine_."

Obi-Wan nodded, chuckling a bit as well. "Oh, no, no, no. Force forbid I would have to mentor this young rascal." He ruffled Anakin's hair playfully. "Young Skywalker is quite a handful."

Anakin grinned proudly, as though the statement was meant to be a compliment.

"If… if Obi-Wan isn't your master… then who is?" Rey tried to keep her voice calm and steady, and she reached out to catch Finn's arm with a vice-like grip.

"Qui-Gon Jinn of course," Anakin replied in surprise. "I thought you knew that."

Rey felt faint, and Finn caught her as she swayed unsteadily. _How were they ever going to fix this?_

"Qui-Gon?" Finn repeated confusedly. "But I thought he was dead." He realized what had happened the moment the words were out of his mouth; his eyes widened in dismay, but it was too late to take the words back back.

"Dead? My master is _dead?_ " Anakin spun on him, eyes widened in alarm. "When? _How?_ "

"No, no, no," Rey waved a hand at him impatiently, clutching her head with the other. "Finn, what are we going to _do?_ "

"I…" Finn ran a hand over his cropped hair. "I'm not sure."

"How do you know my master is dead?" Anakin insisted, stepping up to Rey threateningly.

"He isn't! I mean, he _was—_ I mean—" Rey dropped to her knees with a deep-set moan. "How are we ever going to fix this?"

"You mean… I don't know what you mean," Obi-Wan said confusedly.

"Your pasts _changed!_ " Rey lifted her head out of her hands to look up at him sharply. "Before… before this happened," she gestured wildly to Darth Maul, "you were different! You… you were mentor and apprentice. You were like _brothers_ , always yapping and picking on each other. Now, you're so polite and courteous to one another, it's— it's driving me _mad!_ "

The two Jedi shared a look that indicated they didn't think she needed much help to get to that stage.

"Padmé?" Rey turned to her hopefully. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who knows this, the only one who _cares!_ "

" _I_ do," Finn protested.

Padmé looked extremely uncomfortable. "I'm sorry… but it's true. I don't recall Master Kenobi _ever_ being Anakin's mentor. You must be thinking of someone else."

Abruptly, there was the crackle of static from Obi-Wan's belt, and he unclipped Han's radio in surprise. Rey snatched it out of his hand, shouting into it. "Han! Tell me you guys are not all crazy too—!"

There was silence on the other end for a moment. Then, a groan cut through the static. " _Tiiiime…_ "

"Poe?" Rey pulled the radio away from her ear, momentarily startled. "What's going on? Where are the others?"

"Time! Time, time, ti—ugh—" On the other end, the Resistance pilot slapped his forehead in frustration.

"Poe, what's going on?" Rey repeated. "Wait, wait—" She paused, thinking. "Say 'time' twice if everything's fine. Say 'time' three times if… if something's wrong."

Again Poe was silent for a moment. Then, "Time, time... _time_."

Rey moaned, placing a hand to her forehead. "Is it… are people… acting funny?"

"Time," Even through the connection, she could hear him facepalming. There was a scuffling noise on the other end, then a different voice came in through the speaker.

"Give me back my radio. Hey… who is this?"

"It's Rey," Rey sat down hard on the ground, legs too wobbly to remain upright anymore.

"Oh, Rey." Han's voice was dismissive. "Well anyway, if you care anything about this foolhardy mission, I thought I'd inform you that your two Jedi twins just wandered off."

"What?"

"They seemed pretty certain they could handle the mission on their own," Han continued lazily. "They set off in search of the nearest settlement."

" _What?"_

"On their own?" Obi-Wan frowned thoughtfully. "It this storm?"

"They'll probably get lost and die of heatstroke," Han's voice sounded hopeful.

" _Two_ Jedi?" Finn echoed, slowly turning the words over in his mind. "But Leia isn't a Jedi… right?"

"She's got a lightsaber," Han drawled. "And an ego to match."

Finn scratched his head confusedly. "But that's…" Rey cut him off, throwing a forceful hand out for silence.

"All right, all of you. Listen up." She growled, bending closer to the radio so that those on the other end could hear her too. "We came here to prevent Kylo Ren from destroying time. Correct?"

"Correct." Obi-Wan nodded, unsure of where this was going.

"Good. So you _do_ remember why we're here. That's a relief." Rey heaved a sigh, then snapped immediately back into no-nonsense mode. "Now _we_ have done as much damage as _he_ ever will." Her eyes were lit with fire. "So. We've got to fix this. Here's the part where you've gotta listen up." She raised her head, her burning gaze raking over every one of them. "I don't _care_ what you know, everything you remember from your pasts is _wrong_." Anakin opened his mouth to protest, but she silenced him with a slicing hand motion. "It's not supposed to be this way. And we've got to fix it. Do you trust me?"

"Time," came immediately from the radio, then after a pause Padmé nodded "Yes," at the same instant Anakin droned "No."

Rey waved them off. "Well even if you don't, you still have to. Because we have to fix this. Somehow. Yes, Finn?" She glanced up as she saw her friend's hand punch the air.

"Um… I was just thinking…" Finn began hesitantly, unsure of how to phrase his thoughts. "You said everyone's pasts are now wrong, right? Well… what if this was _meant_ to happen? I mean, what if all along we were _supposed_ to come here and 'mess everything up', but really this is the way it's _supposed_ to be?"

He yelped as Rey immediately punched him in the arm with vicious force. "NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO GO PHILOSOPHICAL ON ME, FINN!" she roared. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE BACKING ME UP, NOT MAKING ME FEEL EVEN MORE INSECURE!"

"—But then again _,_ what if we were _meant_ to try and fix time again?" Finn added hurriedly. "Maybe this was all _supposed_ to happen so that we'd see the consequences and— OW! STOP PUNCHING ME, I'M JUST TRYING TO HELP!"

Obi-Wan scratched the back of his neck in perplexity. "So… so you're saying that when I… killed this… um… _Darth Maul_..." He let the sentence trail off, hoping desperately that someone would finish it for him.

Luckily for him, Rey did so. "...When you killed Darth Maul, it caused a lot of other things to happen, and a lot of others to... _not_ to happen. That's why everyone's acting so weird."

"We're not—" Anakin began, but again Rey cut him off.

"—We're not sure exactly _what_ or _when_ those things are," she continued, "but that's not what's important right now. What's important is that we _fix_ those things. Since _obviously_ no one can bring back the dead," she gave Darth Maul's body a cursory indication, "we're going to have to go back to the beginning of how we got into this mess in the first place."

"When this whole mission began?" Anakin crossed his arms with one eyebrow raised.

"No. I mean, technically yes, but we still have to stop Kylo Ren, so no. We can't just stop the mission altogether." Rey tapped the side of her head. "We're going to have to think a bit more specifically than that."

"We have to stop us from meeting Darth Maul," Finn immediately caught on to her train of thought. "Or, again, more specifically, we have to stop Obi-Wan from killing him."

"Exactly." Rey nodded briskly.

"I, uh… so I'm the one who caused this entire mess?" Obi-Wan again looked aghast.

"If you hadn't stopped him, he would have killed Rey," Finn said firmly. "So while it may be your fault, I for one would not want for you to have done any differently."

"Oh yeah, thanks for saving my life," Rey thanked the Jedi absently, almost as an afterthought. Tapping her chin, she finally spoke up hesitantly. "So… how are we going to do this?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Padmé spoke quietly, and the others turned to look at her. She gazed back at them calmly. "We use the time planet."


	15. Chapter 15

The twin suns glared down on the twin Jedi as they stumbled along through the shifting sand. Luckily, the windstorm seemed to have died down a bit, but sand continued to bloom about them in a flurry with every step, drifting lazily in the torpid air.

Luke coughed drily, attempting to wipe away the sand that was clinging to his sweaty forehead. "This was a brilliant idea of yours, Leia," he croaked. "Walk all the way out here so we can die of thirst."

Leia shot him a glare. "Will you shut up? We're here to capture that Sith apprentice, not complain about the heat." Her toe came in contact with something solid, and she found that they were walking along the vertebrae of a giant skeleton that had been buried nearly completely in the sand. She stepped over it with a grimace. "Kylo Ren is out here, and he's only had a couple hours' head start. We'll catch up to him eventually."

"Yeah, when we all join this guy as desert decor," Luke gestured irritably to the skeleton.

Leia ignored him. "With this flat terrain, we should be able to see him miles out. He's probably headed for the nearest settlement."

The purr of an engine gradually became audible over of the whistle of the wind, and the two paused in their walk to glance back behind them as a lone speeder puttered over the dunes in their direction. The twins stopped to wait for it to pass, but it only slowed to a halt as its driver peered out at them, shading his eyes in the sunlight.

"What are you two sand trotters doing all the way out here?"

The man appeared to be in his mid-thirties, baked a dark brown-red and etched with the hard lines of one accustomed to life in the desert. He regarded the two with a habitual squint in the harsh sunlight as another head peeked curiously over the side of the speeder at them— a young boy, his dark hair wild and disheveled from the ride.

The twins shared a glance before Leia turned back to the man, deciding it best to go with the truth, at least for now. "Our ship crashed, and we're on our way to the nearest settlement."

"Is that so?" The man sat back, scratching at his rough beard.

The boy leaned over the side of the speeder. "You've been out walking in the sandstorm?"

"Yes," Luke nodded sarcastically: _Is it that obvious?_ He brushed his sand-caked bangs out of his eyes in irritation.

"Well that's stupid," the boy remarked.

"Hush, you." The man placed a large, calloused hand on the boy's head and shoved it around gently. He then leaned over the side of the speeder to offer his hand to the twins. "Lars. Cliegg Lars. This is my boy, Owen."

"I'm ten years old," Owen jabbed a thumb at his chest proudly. "I'm helping my father pick up some parts for a new vaporator."

"Nice." Luke found it hard not to roll his eyes at the boy as he stepped forward to shake the father's hand politely. "Luke."

"Leia," his sister grunted, taking Cliegg's hand also. "And we're not out here just because we felt like broiling our youth away out here in this litter box. We're looking for someone." She dusted the sand that had transferred from Cliegg's gritty fingers to her own away with a grimace. "Have you seen anyone else walking around out here recently?"

"Other than you two? No." The man scratched his head. "Typically when one finds people this far out, it's already too late for them." He gave a jerk of his head to indicate the skeleton behind them.

Leia ignored her brother's pointed glance in her direction. "So we're really that far from civilization?"

"Miles," The man made a broad gesture with his arm. "It'll take you hours to get anywhere worth getting to. Mos Espa's back that way," he pointed back the way they came, "And Mos Eisley's ahead. You don't want to head for either."

"Why not?" Luke squinted up at him.

"You two really aren't from around here, are you?" Cliegg shifted with a grunt. "Mos Espa's Hutt-controlled. Unless you're looking for slaves or podracing, there's not much reason to head there."

"I think the others traveled back that way," Leia mused. "We would know if they found Kylo there."

"Mos Eisley..." Cliegg continued, "Well, let's just say any sort of scum and villainy imaginable can be found there. Money's exchanged and deals are made, and no one asks any questions. It's a magnet for troublemakers."

"Then that's definitely where Kylo's headed," Luke decided. "Come on, Leia."

"Thank you for your assistance," Leia nodded carelessly to the Lars duo, as an afterthought.

"Pffft." Owen burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Leia turn to glance back at him, placing a hand on her hip with an irritated tilt of her head.

"Oh come on, are you kidding me? You two won't even make it halfway." The boy waved a dismissive hand with a giggle.

Cliegg casually pushed his son behind him as he addressed Leia. "As I said before, it's quite a distance. And if you'll excuse me for pointing it out, your companion here is looking a little peaky." He gave a concerned glance in Luke's direction. "Dehydration is a very real possibility out here."

Leia shot her brother a look of surprise, having completely forgotten about the fact that he had been poisoned only a few hours before. "Oh Luke, I'm so sorry. I forgot…"

"It's fine," Luke waved her off irritably. "I'm fine, really."

"Tell you what." Cliegg shifted in his seat again, patting the side of the speeder with a pang of ringing metal. "Hop in, you two."

"What? No, we couldn't possibly…" Leia began, and Luke nodded in fervent agreement.

"That's all right, we're fine. Don't worry, we have this taken care of. We know what we're doing."

"Sure you do." Cliegg raised an eyebrow. "Come on, it's no trouble for me whatsoever. Owen and I were on our way to Anchorhead anyway, to pick up those vaporator parts. You say you need to get to Mos Eisley? We can drop you off. It's directly on the way to where we're headed anyway."

"But Dad," Owen protested, "No it's n—" His father clamped a hand over his mouth.

"No trouble at all," the man repeated firmly.

Luke and Leia shared a look. They both hated being indebted to anyone, and prefered to operate alone. But they also needed to find Kylo Ren. Preferably soon.

Duty trumped over pride. "All right, fine." Luke gave a noncommittal shrug as he and his twin climbed inside the speeder.

"And…um. Thank you." Leia added, after an uncomfortable pause.

"You're welcome!" Owen leaned over the back of his seat with a complacent little bob of his head.

Cliegg chuckled, tousling the boy's hair fondly before revving the speeder's engine once again, and the four shot across the desert.

* * *

"Isn't it obvious?" Padmé spoke quietly, and the others turned to look at her. She gazed back at them calmly. "We use the time planet."

"Brilliant," Han drawled over the radio. "Just one question: What the Mustafar is going on?"

"Never mind," Rey shook her head quickly, even though it was impossible for the smuggler to see her. Her mind was working fervently, processing information at top speed. "All right. So to get back to the time planet, we're going to need a ship."

A mirthless laugh exploded out of the radio static, and Finn shrugged in reluctant agreement. "That, we don't have."

Everyone turned to glare at Anakin, and he bristled. "Hey! It's not my fault that stupid bucket of bolts couldn't handle a bit of slime in its engines."

"Watch whose ship you insult, kid," Han snapped. "As soon as we get the that engine repaired, I'm going to make sure you have a nice comfortable box— in the cargo hold."

"Never mind that," Rey repeated, waving an impatient hand before things became too heated between the two. "We've got to find the twins before they do something stupid, if they haven't already."

"Well what are we waiting for, then?" Anakin grumbled.

Rey ignored him, turning to grab Finn by the arm, pulling him off to the side. "All right, Finn." She whispered, looking him in the eye seriously. "It's just you and me now."

"There's still Poe," Finn pointed out.

"Yes, but it's going to be tough with the… you know..." she waved a hand vaguely about her face. "...communication barrier."

"Oh, right."

"Anyway, what I mean to say is that the two—excuse me, _three—_ of us are the only sane ones left in the group. We're all that's holding all of this craziness together."

Finn frowned. "They're not insane, they're just—"

"Shut up. Please." Rey sighed, gripping him tighter. "We can't afford to let any of them out of our sight, and we've got to find Luke and Leia, as soon as humanly possible. If we let them wander off like this, they could destroy more than we'll ever be able to fix. _If_ we can even fix this."

Finn laughed nervously. "Okay… now I feel like we're a couple of babysitters."

"Ew, no!" Rey exclaimed. "We're not babysitting them!"

"That's what you're making it sound like," Finn countered. "You're acting like they don't have minds of their own and if we let them run off they'll get into trouble— like children."

"I— that's not— okay, so maybe that's how it feels just a tiny bit," Rey admitted meekly, brushing a stray hair out of her face in a flustered motion. "They just don't know what's going on. Ignorance is the friend of stupidity."

" _We_ don't know what's going on," Finn pointed out with a sigh. "Anyway, what I mean to say is that we gotta remember that they're not a bunch of ducks we can just herd around. They're still people. Just with different pasts."

"Which in turn makes them act really weird," Rey insisted. "But never mind that. Let's just get back to the _Falcon_."

The trip back was mercifully uneventful, and shorter than they had first expected. Han, Chewbacca, and Poe were waiting outside the gangplank as they trotted up. Unable to wait for them to walk the rest of the way to the ship, Poe dashed out to meet them.

His face asked more questions than words ever could, even if he was able to speak normally.

"It's a long story," Rey moaned in response to his questioning gaze. "All I can say is that we made a _big_ mistake."

"Yeah…" Finn lifted his shoulders uncomfortably. "We _may_ have accidentally killed someone we weren't supposed to."

Rey groaned. "We _definitely_ weren't supposed to."

Poe's eyes bulged, and he looked from one to the other in disbelief.

"We've got to find the twins," Rey let out her breath in a forceful exhale. "So we can figure out the full extent of our little… accident."

"Han said they were _both_ Jedi?" Finn queried of his pilot friend. "Leia as well?"

Poe nodded impatiently, before shooting a sharp glance in Han's direction, where the smuggler was in a heated whispered conversation with his copilot. The three caught small snatches of Han's side of the conversation in between the Wookie's interspersed contributions.

"... No, it's not. No— I promise. As soon as we get the chance, we're leaving this assembly of morons. They can't keep us captive here forever, pal. They'll let their guard down, and— poof. We're gone." The pilot wiggled his fingers in a retreating gesture.

This hardly seemed to satisfy Chewie, who growled softly, crossing his enormous, hairy arms.

"No, they don't _need_ us." Han waved a flippant hand. "Not sure how we got on this mission in the first place. They won't even notice our absence, trust me. Besides, Jabba's going to have our skins. If we don't get him that money soon he'll send out enough of those bounty hunter idiots of his to line from one end of the galaxy to the next, sweeping for us. If he hasn't already."

"Great. Just great." Rey turned back to her companions with a growl. "On top of all this, we're going to have to be on high Han Alert. Of all people, we can't let _him_ escape as well."

A reply was blotted out by a sudden shadow that fell over the companions, prompting a bewildered glance skyward.

The broiling suns had been blocked, glinting in a radiant halo around the black form that descended towards them from the sky. Engines droned and mechanics whined as they scrambled to get out of the path of the large ship. It dipped to alight on the dune beside the _Falcon,_ where it perched unsteadily, hunched against the horizon like an overgrown bird of prey.

The companions began to back away as, with a hiss of ejected steam, the hatchway began to open.

Through the steam, a figure was visible, trotting down the gangplank to glance around in uncertainty. The mist dissipated in the arid air quickly, just as the figure raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck in confusion— and they heard a sharp intake of breath from Han.

He recognized those features. That suave, urbane stature. That impeccable outfit, complete with a voluminous purple cape. That elegant, classy moustache.

" _Lando?_ "


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey everyone! I apologize for yet _another_ late update. I spent a long time on this particular chapter because I re-wrote it several times, as I just couldn't seem to get it where I wanted it. ****Thank you all so much for your patience!** **Anyway... Chapter 16.**

* * *

" _Lando?_ What are you doing here?"

"I could ask _you_ the same question," the man retorted, hurrying down the gangplank to survey the lot of them. "I'm just zipping over this area, minding my own business, and then I see the _Millennium Falcon_ beached like a bird with a broken wing. _What in the name of Bespin have you done to my ship?_ "

" _Your_ ship?" Han repeated. "Now listen here bud, you lost her to me fair and—"

"You're not supposed to be here," Lando cut him off with a curt nod of his head. "You're not even supposed to be _alive_. So all I can ask is: You found the time planet, too?"

"You're… Lando Calrissian, aren't you? _The_ Lando Calrissian?" Rey gasped. "You know about the time planet?"

Lando gave a hearty laugh. "Darling. I've used the thing for _years_. _Of course_ I know about it." He squinted upwards. "Why don't you all come inside? This sand is getting inside my clothing and it isn't the most pleasant of feelings."

The others shared a look. Finally, Obi-Wan shifted. "Who are you?" he asked bluntly.

"How rude of me not to formally introduce myself! My apologies." Lando strolled down to the end of the gangplank. "My name is Lando Calrissian. Baron Administrator of Bespin's one and only Cloud City, successful businessman, and _handsome_ gentleman."

"Also former smuggler, swindler, and full-time Sabacc cheat," Han rolled his eyes. Chewie chuckled.

"Ignore that ugly scruffy beast and his Wookie." Lando took Padmé's small hand in his own and raised it to his lips. "Hello _,_ gorgeous. And who might you be?"

"Padmé Amidala," Padmé replied with a small smile, fully aware of the man's flirtatious manner and playing right along. "Senator and former Queen of the planet Naboo, defender of democracy, and fighter for freedom."

Lando raised his eyebrows as her lengthy introduction matched his own. "Ah. And how did you come into the company of my old pal, Mr. StealYoShip?"

"I _didn't_ steal her, you—"

" _I'm_ Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight." Anakin stepped between Lando and Padmé, disliking the way the other's gaze continued to linger on the Senator's face. He shot Lando a pointed glare, to which the man simply replied with another eyebrow-raise.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi," Obi-Wan simply nodded.

"I'm Rey," Rey breathed, "And this is Finn and Poe." Finn gave a polite wave. Poe crossed his arms with a smart nod of his head, but was secretly glad that he hadn't had to introduce himself due to his embarrassing lack of vocalization.

"You sure have got a lot of explaining to do, pal," Han shook his head in incredulity.

"As do you," Lando shot back. He tilted his head to one side with a wry smile. "So who's going to go first?"

"I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to take you up on the offer to come inside," Finn confessed. "There's so much sand down the back of my shirt I think I'm about to go crazy."

"Oh, then come right this way," Lando gestured behind him towards his shuttle. "Please. Make yourselves at home. All of you."

"Is it safe?" Obi-Wan pressed Han in an undertone. "I mean, can he be trusted?"

Han thought for a moment. "I… no. Not really. But we've been pals since way back. He's never done anything to suggest otherwise. Yet."

Chewie growled something under his breath. "Ooorraaaggh."

"I said 'yet'." Han answered crossly.

Lando's shuttle was a stark contrast to the grubby bucket of bolts that was the _Millennium Falcon_ , and the companions couldn't help their expressions of surprise. It was relatively small, for a private shuttle, but the design was sleek, comfortable, and _clean_. They felt almost guilty to ruin the ship's crystalline appearance by stepping inside its pearly white interior with their sand-caked selves.

Lando noted their dazzlement with a look of smug satisfaction as he waved them all on board with an elegant hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, please. Take a seat. And we will have a nice, long chat about what the _Mustafar_ we're all doing here."

His smile faded slightly as the others readily obliged, settling down on his plush benches as they brushed significant amounts of sand out of their hair and clothing, resulting in a dusting of the ship's pale interior with a layer of light brown.

"Wait." Rey stopped, turning to Lando. "First, I have a question. If you were a Sith apprentice, where would you go on this planet? No no, scratch that. If you were two young Jedi _looking_ for a Sith apprentice, where would you go on this planet?"

"That's… oddly specific." Lando tapped his chin. "Well, if I didn't know my way around this place, I'd probably just die out in the desert."

" _Besides_ that," Rey said in exasperation.

"Hm." Lando thought for a moment. "Well darling, assuming your friends have a significant amount of luck, they might make it to Mos Espa, which is back that way."

"We would have seen them," Obi-Wan shook his head.

"Oh come on," Finn moaned. "Don't tell me we're going to have to comb the entire desert for those two..."

"They headed off in a south-easterly direction," Han contributed with a yawn. A cloud of golden dust rose around him from Chewie as the Wookie nodded his head vigorously in agreement.

"Okay, so they could have run into Anchorhead," Lando concluded. "Or Tosche Station."

"Mos Eisley." Anakin spoke suddenly. "They're in Mos Eisley."

"What?" Han sat up. "It's not possible for them to get all the way over there on foot in the amount of time they've been gone."

"Mos Eisley?" Rey glanced around incredulously. "Where's that?"

"They _are_ in Mos Eisley," Anakin was insistent. "At least Luke is."

"How do you know?" Obi-Wan demanded. "You mean you can sense him from that far away?"

"Not exactly _sense_ him," Anakin confessed. "It's almost as if I... _am_ him for a split second."

There was a pause. "Okay..." Finn said. "Now that's not weird at all."

"I don't know how else to explain it." Anakin ran a hand through his hair. "If I try hard enough, I can almost _feel_ what he's feeling. See what he's seeing. Do what he's doing. _Be_ him."

"Oh! It's because he's your son!" Rey suddenly exclaimed. "It must have something to do with the Force, right? The reason why you have this kind of connection?"

"I don't know," Anakin snapped. "I don't know _why_ I can do it, only that I _can_ do it. And stop saying that Luke is my son! We don't _know_ that."

"Yes we-" Rey began, but a gentle squeeze of her hand by Finn made her stop. The topic appeared to be a bit of a tender one for the young Jedi. If Anakin was insistent enough on repeatedly denying the fact, it probably wasn't best to press the matter. She tried a more tactful route. "We can give it a try, I guess." She shrugged. "It can't hurt anything, right?"

"Young Anakin does seem to display many uncanny abilities." Obi-Wan stroked his beardless chin with a pensive expression. "Qui-Gon is always talking about Skywalker's extraordinary skills."

Padmé glanced around at the others, crossing her arms over her chest. "I say we haven't got much to lose."

* * *

The speeder whined, slowing to a more leisurely pace as its four passengers approached the spaceport.

"Mos Eisley," Cleigg grunted, gesturing with a grand sweep of his arm.

"Huh." Luke wrinkled his nose as he and his twin moved to hop out of the speeder. "It's… busy."

"Watch your step," young Owen warned them, with a knowing bob of his head. "Both figuratively, _and_ literally. This place is a madhouse."

"Thank you for your concern," Leia said briskly. Straightening on a thought, she bent to rifle through the contents of the bag at her belt.

"No need." Cliegg read her intentions, staying them with a raised hand.

"No sir, we must repay you for your trouble," Luke insisted. "We are indebted to you."

"No need." the moisture farmer repeated firmly. "Think nothing of it. From one sand trotter to another." The very corner of his mouth lifted, and his weathered face wrinkled into a smile.

Luke turned to glance at Leia helplessly. They didn't have time for this. "Fine," Luke said, a bit more forcefully than was necessary. "Um… thank you."

Cleigg simply nodded. "Good luck." With a final small smile, he revved the engine and the speeder shot off— back the way they came. Owen waved enthusiastically at them until they were too small to discern anymore.

"Queer guy." Leia grumbled. "Wonder why he cared to help a pair of random 'sand trotters' like us."

"Well I for one am glad he did," Luke declared. "Now we can _really_ begin our search for Kylo Ren."

The two began their scouring of the space port, but stopping passersby for questioning turned out to be more difficult than they had first imagined. Much of the language being thrown about around them was foreign and confusing, and many of the people and aliens they approached hurried off with frightened expressions before they could even reach them. The two wondered if they were approaching people with too much of a threatening appearance. They tried toning it down a bit, but as Luke pointed out, Leia's constant glower wasn't helping much.

Whenever they _were_ able to approach someone, the individual was always extremely vague with their answers:

"Why do you want to know?"

"Is there a reason why I should care to tell you?"

"I _might_ be bothered to tell you what I know… with a little _pursuasion_."

"How about I _pursuade_ you with a lightsaber to your throat?" Luke growled under his breath, after a particularly infuriating meeting with a Twi'lek bounty hunter.

"Patience," Leia warned him, though privately she agreed with him. "We can't lose our tempers."

"I'm so sick of this," Luke continued stubbornly. "Why won't he come out into the open and fight us, instead of sneaking around like a filthy coward?"

"I can't sense any other Force presences nearby, other than our own," Leia muttered. "Maybe it was a mistake to come here. What made you so sure Kylo is here of all places, anyway?"

"I don't know," Luke said listlessly. "I don't know _what_ I was thinking. I just wanted to get out of the sun."

Leia tapped her thumbnail against her teeth thoughtfully. "Should we see if we can hitch a ride back to Mos Espa? Or what was that other place Lars mentioned? Anchorhead? Maybe we'd have better luck there."

"No," Luke said suddenly. "We should stay here. The others are looking for us."

"What? Here, in Mos Eisley?" Leia demanded. "How do you know?"

"I just... know." Luke gave an irritated shrug. "Don't ask me how. They sort of... told me so."

"Who, the others?" Leia squinted at her twin in incredulity.

"Well, Anakin specifically," Luke conceded. "It was just like he kind of... was me. Or I was him. I don't know."

Leia shot her twin a sharp look before putting her foot down. "All right, we're taking a break," she decided. "You're beginning to look paler than a stormtrooper's armor, and now you're starting to talk nonsense. Come on— while we're here, let's get something to drink." Luke's protests were feeble as she caught his hand in a titanium grip and pulled him into the nearest cantina.

"We _will_ stay here and wait for the others though, right?" He asked anxiously.

"Of course." Leia turned away from her brother so that he couldn't see her bite her lip in concern for him.

Jaunty music blasted their ears as they stepped inside the cantina, and several figures glanced up curiously at their arrival. There were quite a few leers at the teenagers' appearance, but the two ignored them as they strolled up to the bar. The barkeep gave them a queer look, but turned to grab their orders without a word.

Like a smack in the face, Luke realized just how thirsty he was. Without waiting for the barkeep to return with his drink, he snatched the closest liquid he could find and gulped it down.

He immediately choked it back up, as it was disgusting. Giving a few hacking coughs for good measure, he then began to fervently wipe his mouth with the back of his sleeve before he realized that someone was yelling in his face. The creature's round black eyes glittered with rage and it was gesturing furiously, but the language it was speaking was a grunted garble that Luke couldn't understand. Then another patron shoved his way between the two.

"What do you think _you're_ doing, hotshot?"

"Drinking," Luke managed to clear his panicked airways enough to produce a sufficiently snarky tone.

The man seemed to swell, and his face slid into a gruesome snarl. "That's my buddy's drink. You wanna tell me why you're drinkin' out of his drink?"

"He's sorry, okay?" Leia peered over her brother's shoulder in exasperation. "Leave him alone."

Catching sight of her, the human patron's face brightened, and his ugly expression slid into an even uglier attempt at a winning smile. "You shouldn't poke your nose into places it doesn't belong, little girly," he purred. "Wouldn't want to ruin your pretty face, now would you? What's a girl like you doing in a place like this, anyway?"

"Hey, watch who you're making eyes at," Luke growled.

The first creature grumbled something under his breath, and his companion turned to shoot Luke a look of extreme dislike. "He doesn't like you," he said pointedly. " _I_ don't like you."

"Well I don't like you either," Luke examined his fingernails carelessly.

"Quit that. We don't have time to get into a fight," Leia whispered to her brother under her breath. "Let me handle this idiot."

At that moment, the man reached over to catch hold of Leia's wrist. "How 'bout you ditch baby-blue here and I teach you all about what _real_ men do at the bar?"

Luke's jaw twitched in tension and his hands clenched into fists at his side, but he remained still. Waiting.

"Let go of my hand," Leia told the patron quietly.

"Come on, sugar pie," the man insisted. "You'll thank me for it later."

"I would _thank_ you to let go of my hand." Leia replied.

The man's face darkened into a scowl, but his grip tightened as he pulled her closer to himself. "I don't typically take 'no' for an answer, darling."

Luke jumped forward with a snarl, but Leia was faster. In one swift movement she had whipped out her lightsaber, slashing the man a long, angry gash across his face. With a scream of pain he let go of her, and fell back. His companion jump forward with a roar, catching up a table and heaving it in the twins' direction. Luke already had his own saber ready, slicing the table down the middle. Using the Force, he flung the pieces back at the creature, bowling him over just as he'd reached for his blaster, sending laser fire every which-way throughout the cantina. The rest of the patrons leapt to their feet in alarm, thinking they were under attack.

Before the twins quite knew what was happening, they were in the middle of a full-on brawl. Blaster fire riddled the walls and patrons dove behind tables before returning the assault in kind, clueless as to who they were shooting at but nevertheless determined to fight back. Luke and Leia blocked laser bolts from all sides, pressed back to back as their lightsabers buzzed rhythmically.

"No time to get into a fight, huh?" Luke called over his shoulder.

"If I'd let _you_ handle him, you would've had him decapitated!" Leia shot back over the noise.

"Good thing you decided to only slice half his face off then," Luke replied sarcastically. "Once he gets over the loss of his eye, he's going to be on his knees thanking you for your incredible mercy."

"Alright, so maybe I got a bit too angry." Leia admitted, but the icy satisfaction shining in her eyes betrayed her. "I _hate_ people like him. Maybe next time he'll think twice about being such a blasted bully."

Luke just shook his head with a small smile, before being forced to duck as the limb of some unfortunate droid was chucked in his direction.

The two steadily worked their way to the door, while continuing to dodge lasers and flying beverages as they jumped over overturned tables and floored patrons. The blaze of sunlight that met them as they ducked outside was welcome. They spent the next several minutes putting distance between themselves and the chaotic cantina.

"We didn't even get the drinks we paid for," Luke complained.

Leia answered by tossing him the sloshing canister at her belt. "While a certain _somebody_ was overeager to pick a fight, I refilled our canteens."

"Nice." Luke unscrewed the lid and took a grateful swallow.

"Hey." Leia stopped suddenly. "Can you sense that? It feels like—" The two turned a corner, where they nearly ran directly into Anakin, Rey, and the rest of the crew.

"See? Told you!" Anakin and Luke exclaimed simultaneously. Both crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing the other with surprising coldness.

"Oh good, I'm so glad we managed to find you guys!" Rey threw her arms around Luke in a near-hysterical hug of relief.

"Took you long enough to find us," Luke huffed, pushing her off of himself. "What have you been doing all this time?"

"Looking for you two," Han grumbled.

"Why did you guys run off?" Rey demanded. "You know how the Jedi Masters told us to stick together!"

"We got tired of sitting around while all of _you_ did virtually nothing," Leia snapped. "And it seems that's all you're capable of in the first place. Instead of taking the mission seriously and searching for Kylo Ren like you should have been, all _you_ laser brains have been doing is wandering around the desert worried about _us?_ Don't you think we're fully capable of taking care of ourselves?"

"Easy does it," Finn whispered, as Rey inhaled sharply.

"You two _don't get it!_ " The scavenger burst out. "Forget the mission—all of this is _wrong!_ You two are not supposed to know you're twins, and you—" here she jabbed an accusatory finger at Leia, "—are _not_ supposed to be a Jedi!" She took a deep breath, attempting to pull herself together again. "So, we're all going to need to get back in time in order to fix this."

The twins shared a look. "Did you hit your head too?" Leia asked bluntly.

Poe rolled his eyes.

"You'll just have to trust us on this," Finn put in with an apologetic shrug.

"And you three are going along with this too?" Leia demanded of Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé.

"Well…" Padmé began.

"We don't really have a choice, do we?" Obi-Wan admitted. "However, I do sense that Rey and Finn are indeed telling the truth." Anakin nodded in agreement, if a bit grudgingly.

"Can we continue this lovely little reunion _inside?_ " someone yelled at them, and the twins turned to see a tall, impeccably-dressed man standing some distance away by a waiting spacecraft. "I would prefer not to stand out here in the sun waiting for all of you to finish griping at one another. Plus, save the expositions for me, too! I need to know what's going on just as much as those two do!"

"Alright, we're coming, Lando!" Finn called back. He turned back to the twins with a grimace. "Come on. You just have to trust us."

Luke shoved his hands into his pockets with a scowl as he followed the others to Lando's ship. "Some people sure have a lot of explaining to do," he grumbled.

"A _whole lot_ of explaining," Rey agreed with a moan.

* * *

 **Yes, I know it feels like everything is sort of out of control right now, but I PROMISE, the next chapter will do a lot to clear up a great many things. It may seem like it now, but I swear I'm not just making this craziness up as I go! Everything will be explained in due time. :D**

 **-AlaskanAppaloosa :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey guys! Hope you've all been having an awesome week. If not... hopefully this will help cheer you up a bit. Here's to another installment of crazy intergalactic time travel!**

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As they sat around the plush benches in Lando's shuttle, the companions simply stared at one another, everyone's eyes begging the others to do the talking.

"Awfully quiet back there," Lando commented from the cockpit.

Rey glanced around in a panic, as the vast majority of expectant glances were being shot in her direction. "Why me? Why do I have to explain everything?"

"Because you're the only one who knows what's going on," Obi-Wan explained patiently.

"Unless, of course, Finn would like to speak," Padmé pointed out, but Finn shook his head frantically.

"No way. Rey is a whole lot better at explaining things than I am."

"Thanks a lot," Rey growled under her breath. She leaned forward reluctantly, her hands sliding over one another in nervous spasms. "Alright then. Here we go." She took a deep breath, letting it out in one long exhale. "Here's a… recap, for those who missed it before." She briefly recounted their run-in with Qui-Gon and the others, her confrontation with Darth Maul, and his subsequent death. Throughout her narrative, the others listened attentively, and she was aware of the fact that Lando, while apparently still busied with piloting the shuttle, had also leaned back in his chair in order to hear her better.

When she finished, Poe gave a low whistle.

" _Exactly_ , Poe." Rey moaned into the ceiling. "When that happened, everything changed. Every _one_ changed."

"So we really need to know what went wrong, and how we're going to have to fix it." Finn explained.

"We need everyone to tell us everything you can remember, as far back as you can." Rey pleaded with all of them. " _Everything_. The truth." She was fully aware when the others all shared exasperated expressions, but she didn't really care anymore.

"What is this, an interrogation?" Luke complained.

Rey ignored him. "Finn, Poe? I'm going to really need your help trying to remember all of the legends. Of how things are _supposed_ to be."

"Right." Finn bobbed his head in agreement, and Poe gave her a thumbs-up.

"Let's start from the beginning," Rey began. "Pretend like none of us know a _thing_ about you. Because we really don't. Not anymore. Obi-Wan?"

Kenobi looked a bit startled to have the spotlight settled on him, but he cleared his throat readily. "Right. When I was nearly six months old, I was brought to the Jedi temple in order to be raised in the ways of the Force. I was assigned to Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and we worked alongside each other for several years."

"Okay, so maybe abbreviate a little." Rey waved a flustered hand. "Focus on things that may have to do with any of the rest of us. Go on."

"One day we were assigned to protecting the then Queen Amidala of Naboo." Kenobi bobbed his head in Padmé's direction, and she nodded in agreement. "Our ship was damaged, and we were forced to land on the planet Tatooine, where we met young Skywalker here." Again he nodded, this time towards Anakin. "Qui-Gon sensed a great power in him. He offered to take the boy on to train as a Jedi."

"Okay, so then what happened?" Rey motioned for him to continue.

Obi-Wan looked surprised. "That's about it, concerning the rest of the members of the party. I haven't seen Senator Amidala or Skywalker in several years, and I don't know any of the rest of you."

"So, just to clarify, you're definitely _not_ Anakin's mentor," Finn questioned. "And you never have been."

"Uh… no. Definitely not." Obi-Wan gave him a queer look. "I rarely see Skywalker outside of the odd mission we have together. The Council likes to give Qui-Gon and him the more… erratic kinds of assignments. I prefer things a bit… tamer. Both feet on the ground."

Finn leaned back with a sigh. "Just making sure."

"Anakin, you're next," Rey ordered.

"Fine." Anakin rolled his eyes with an irritated huff. "My master is Qui-Gon Jinn. Duh. I've been his apprentice for ten years."

Rey's hands jumped in her lap impulsively. "Ten years." She remembered Padmé's words back in the desert. "So he didn't… die. On Naboo."

"Of course not." Anakin shifted angrily.

Finn met Rey's gaze, and saw that they were both coming to the same conclusion. "He didn't die… because Darth Maul wasn't there to kill him." he said slowly.

"...And so Obi-Wan never had to take his place as Anakin's mentor," Rey murmured.

She jumped as Poe laid a hand on her shoulder, and glanced up at him expectantly. He gestured to Luke and Leia, who both looked extremely restless.

"Right. We might get back to you, Padmé, but first I need to know the twins' side of this." There was obviously much more that needed to be uncovered there, and the twins' patience was something she couldn't really afford to test at the moment.

Padmé gave a small smile and nodded in understanding, sinking back into the cushions as she watched the twins sit up.

"My sister Leia and I are training to be Jedi Knights, with the great master Yoda." Luke fiddled with his lightsaber in a nonchalant manner. "He's training us to take down the Emperor and all of his underlings."

"Here we go," Finn muttered under his breath. "Now this is where things get _really_ crazy."

"Do you know _why_ you live on Dagobah? Instead of… oh… Tatooine? Or Alderaan?" Rey posed the question casually.

Luke glanced at his sister, and Leia shifted irritably. "Master Yoda took us with him after the Senate failed and the Empire rose to power. He told us there was nowhere else where we would be safe."

"Hang on a moment." Rey turned to speak privately to the two boys at her side. "Why were the twins split up in the first place?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard many of the old legends." Finn shook his head in embarrassment, but Poe's hand shot into the air.

"Time." Gesturing helplessly as he was unable to express his answer, he finally gave up, drawing his hands down his face in frustration.

"Hang on, I have an idea!" Rey jumped up to address Lando. "Do you have any paper? Anything he can draw on?"

Poe brightened significantly, and looked hopeful for the first time since his accident.

Lando shook his head apologetically. "Not on me." Poe's face fell, and he began to repeatedly hit his forehead with his palm in vexation.

"Oh, I get what you're thinking!" Obi-Wan tapped the side of his head to illustrate the point. "If he can't seem to put his thoughts into _words_ , maybe he can _draw_ them instead."

"Oh, wait!" Finn bent down to pull off his boot. Flipping it upside down, he proceeded to dump a significant amount of sand onto the floor. He then pulled the emptied boot back on his foot and returned Poe's ecstatic high-five, extremely pleased with himself.

Poe immediately bent to drag his finger through the sand in swirling patterns.

"It looks like a skull," Padmé commented, peering over Rey's shoulder.

"A mask," Obi-Wan suggested.

"Darth Vader." Rey gasped. "It's Darth Vader, isn't it?"

Poe nodded, sitting back on his heels as he surveyed the rough sketch thoughtfully.

"You're right, Poe." Rey said slowly, staring at the drawing as well. "They were separated because of Darth Vader. So he wouldn't be able to find them. And turn them to the dark side."

"So… does that mean…" Finn glanced around at the others, eyes wide.

"Who's Darth Vader?" It wasn't Anakin who asked. It wasn't Padmé, or Obi-Wan, or even Lando. It had been Luke, who was peering at the drawing over Poe's shoulder curiously.

"Yeah, who is this guy?" Leia raised an eyebrow as well. "He looks dangerous."

"That answers my question," Finn replied in a small voice.

" _Darth Vader doesn't exist anymore?_ " Rey breathed.

Finn scratched the back of his head. "How is that even possible?"

A loud beep came from the cockpit, and Lando jumped in surprise, turning to attend to the console in front of him. A whirring sound came from above, and the companions glanced out the windows, startled, to see that the small shuttle was being approached by a much larger ship. The tiny shuttle was soon dwarfed by the other ship as it continued to draw steadily nearer, until a loud clang and violent jolt indicated that the two ships had coupled.

"What's that?" Luke leapt to his feet. "The Imperials have found us!"

Lando chuckled. "I can assure you they have not." He stood, bending briefly to brush a dusting of sand off his robes. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the lovely little yacht, the _Virtue_. Three levels of nearly 2,500 square meters of luxury comfort, relaxation, and comfort. Did I mention comfort?" He gave a sweeping gesture with his arm, activating the airlock with a hiss of machinery.

"Whoa." Finn squinted out the shuttle window at the sleek yacht outside. "I thought _this_ was your ship."

"This tiny little shuttle?" Lando looked extremely insulted. "Of course not. I only use this piddly thing when I have business in-atmosphere. It's less likely to attract unwanted attention than the _Virtue_ 's glorious appearance. And stop smudging up my windows with your grubby hands."

"I'm curious to see, what exactly _is_ this business that would need to avoid 'unwanted attention'?" Han drawled.

"Han ole' buddy." Lando shook his head in exaggerated disappointment. "I'm from the _future_ , that's what. And unlike _some_ people, I do my very best to leave things the way I found them. Watch your step," he cautioned them, as they climbed down through the airlock into the _Virtue_.

When all of them had made it down the airlock tube, he hopped in after them before continuing. "I suppose it's now time for _me_ to do the expositioning. Presumably you all must be wondering how a former smuggler like me became so well-to-do, hm?"

"It crossed my mind," Obi-Wan admitted, as the rest of them surveyed the extravagant interior of the _Virtue_.

If the companions had thought the small shuttle had been lavish, it was small and dirty compared to the pristine appearance of the yacht. A large bar sat in the middle of the main deck, surrounded by a plethora of plush seats covered in the finest Corellian leather. Elongated windows stretched from ceiling to floor, providing a clear view of the breathtaking stars and nebulae outside, as well as the burnt ochre and browns of the planet Tatooine below them. Priceless pieces of art lined any area of the walls that did not have windows, adding a splash of color to the silvery-grey of the yacht's interior. Han raised his eyebrows with a knowing smirk at the fully-furnished gambling table in the corner, and Chewie roared happily when he caught sight of the Dejarik board by the bar.

Lando strode over to step into the elevator with a smile, watching the others stare around in awe. "This isn't even half of it," he said smoothly. "Let's visit the upper levels, shall we, and I can talk at the same time."

The elevator wouldn't fit all eleven of them at once, but it turned out Chewie wanted to stay behind to examine the Dejarik board, while Luke and Leia had immediately begun to raid the bar for something to drink. It only took three trips to get the rest of them up to the bridge, where they were met by a fully-windowed deck accompanied by _more_ couches, so plush and large that Rey was met with a sudden childish urge to start bouncing on them.

Lando surveyed the view outside the observation deck in satisfaction. "I discovered that little time planet on one of my many adventures, while trying to escape some particularly relentless pirates that I had angered, although I don't quite recall the exact reasons for their hostility towards me." A small droid rolled up to ask them all if they wanted anything to drink. Lando waited until after everyone had finished with their requests to continue. He turned to face the window, and they saw his reflection smile broadly. "You can imagine my shock when I discovered its abilities. Well, I quickly learned how to put them to use."

He glanced over his shoulder at Rey. "Stocks and bonds, darling. That's my secret. Stocks and bonds."

"I thought you had a mining colony on Bespin," Han scratched the back of his neck.

"I do," Lando said simply. "But how do you think it got so successful? How do you think I originally funded it? Using the time planet, I am able to see the _future_. To see where companies will be in fifteen, twenty years. And I choose the ones that will succeed."

"Whoa." Finn looked around the yacht in awe. "That's actually… brilliant."

"Should have known you've always taken the easy way around things," Han rolled his eyes, but his face betrayed the fact that he was pretty impressed as well. "You just couldn't start an honest business from scratch, now could you?"

"Easy? You call that easy?" Lando demanded. "Visiting the future is never easy, let me tell you that. It's always changing. Nothing is ever set in stone. The best it can do is give me an _educated guess_ on where to place my hard-earned money." He raised his eyebrows with a smirk before turning for the elevator again. "Besides, I can't tell you how many times I nearly destroyed myself by getting caught. But I'm careful. I cover my tracks well."

"So if you have to visit the future to invest in your resources, what are you doing here on Tatooine?" Padmé questioned, "Several years before you were even born?"

"There was a podrace on Boonta's Eve," Lando explained. "I'd gone back to see who won, then back even further in order to bet on him. I was just about to leave when I caught sight of the _Falcon_ and went in to investigate." He saw Padmé smile broadly and glance over at Anakin to poke him in the arm. "What?"

Padmé put her hands on her hips with a small smile. "Did the winner of the podrace just so happen to be named Anakin Skywalker?"

"As a matter of fact he was," Lando looked extremely confused. "How do— wait a minute… you introduced yourself as Anakin Skywalker, didn't you?" He turned to Anakin, amazed. "You _are_ him, just older! Interesting. Very interesting." He looked positively intrigued by this revelation.

Anakin blinked, not having been entirely paying attention. "Hm, what? Yeah, Anakin, that's me. I'm him."

"Oh you _did_ win that race," Obi-Wan said in surprise. "I'd forgotten. I remember Qui-Gon putting an awful lot of trust in your abilities."

"Well he was right to," Lando exclaimed in satisfaction. "You'll be happy to know that you earned me a fair amount of money today. Er. I mean ten years ago."

He gave the you Jedi a satisfied nod, but Anakin returned the gesture with a careless wave of his hand. "Glad to be of service." Padmé frowned.

"Ani, what's wrong?" She laid a gentle hand on his arm as the rest of the crew headed for the elevator again to visit the next level.

"What?" Anakin glanced at her in surprise, as though only just now realizing she was there.

"You have that agitated look again." Padmé pressed. "And you look a little feverish. Are you feeling alright?" She laid a hand against his forehead in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Anakin brushed her off. "Probably dehydration or something. Heat getting to me a bit. I'm sure it'll go away once that droid comes back with drinks. Don't worry."

"Alright," Padmé relented, if a bit reluctantly.

"Would you look at that view," Anakin changed the subject quickly, stepping towards the windows, shoving his hands into his pockets rather forcefully.

"It _is_ beautiful, isn't it?" Padmé stepped up beside him as she peered out at the motionless stars around them.

"Not as beautiful as you," Anakin murmured softly, and she blushed.

"Ani, that's so lame." She slapped him on the arm playfully before turning for the elevator. "If you're going to compliment me, you'd better think of ones that aren't so cringe-worthy."

"But it's true!" Anakin protested, running after her. Padmé just laughed, punching in the button for the elevator, and he barely managed to slip inside after her before the doors closed on him. He turned to press the button for the next level, but she caught his wrist in a vice-like grip, pulling him around so that she could look him directly in the eyes.

"Anakin, please tell me what's wrong." She met his gaze seriously. "You keep changing the subject, and I can tell you're hiding something from me."

"I'm not hiding anything," Anakin grumbled, attempting to pull his arm out of her grip. "I'm just tired, that's all. Too much running around all the time."

"We both know that isn't true." Padmé's grip tightened, and she refused to let go.

"Let's just go up already." Anakin squirmed around her, punching in the button to launch the elevator. As the door slid open to reveal the next floor, he pushed past her without another word, or even so much as a glance in her direction.

"Anakin, wait." Padmé called after him, but he didn't turn. "Anakin!"

* * *

 **Your feedback sustains me. I love seeing what you thought! -Alaskan Appaloosa :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hello all! I'm so sorry I haven't been updating lately. School has kind of been beating me about the head these past few weeks, and I decided to take a break from the internet in order to keep my sanity during finals season. We're still not really out of those woods yet, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer. I meant to post this yesterday (May the Fourth be with you and all that jazz) but I kind of... forgot... and maybe binge-watched everything from TPM to ROTJ...? Now I'm exhausted but also refreshed, if that makes any sense. It got me motivated to get writing again! Ahem. New chapter.**

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Chapter 18

"Easy Luke, don't drink so fast." Leia put her hand on her brother's glass, attempting to pull it out of his grip. "Just slow down a bit, will you? You're going to make yourself sick."

"Whatever you say, Mom." Luke's face was still pale and peaky looking, but he managed to roll his eyes. Instead of raising the next glass to his lips, he upended it over his burning face and neck with a small gasp of relief. He blinked at her through sopping wet blond bangs. "That better?"

"Now you're just making a mess," Leia scoffed. She reached over the counter to refill her glass but Luke, without moving from his spot, twitched a subtle finger- causing the cup to leap over and spill its contents all over her front. With an indignant yelp, she fell back. "Luke! That… actually felt really good."

" _Now_ who's making a mess?" Luke asked mockingly, as she bent to refill her cup once again. She spun around with the speed of a striking snake, and he dodged too late as she pounced on him in an attempt to dump the cupful of ice in her hand down his shirt. "AGH! LEIA!"

She laughed and ducked away as Luke squirmed to remove the sliver of ice melting down the back of his neck. He flicked it at her and she ducked again; it pinged loudly off of the metal drink dispenser behind her. Chewie glanced up from the Dejarik board in the corner with a peevish growl.

"Pfft. What's up with you?" Luke strolled over to glance over Chewie's shoulder as the Wookiee played around with Lando's Dejarik board, which was apparently very recently upgraded and had several new features absent from the _Millennium Falcon_ 's antiquated set. Chewie was becoming increasingly confused in his game against the computer, and he leaned back, gripping his furry head in frustration.

"This is definitely an upgrade," Luke remarked. "I've never seen that avatar before." He reached out to examine the controls on the side of the board, but Chewie suddenly caught his wrist with a roar. " _Hey!_ " Luke fought against the enormous hairy paw only to stop dead in the middle of his protest, having seen just what the Wookie had seen. His jaw dropped open, and he spun to return Chewbacca's stunned expression.

"Leia… you might want to come see this."

"What?" Leia called over her shoulder irritably. She had bent to toss the scattered pieces of ice on the floor into the sink.

"I'm serious, Leia. You should see this."

Something in her brother's voice made her turn around. With a frustrated sigh, she stalked over towards him to see what he was so concerned about. "Luke, I'm trying to clean up this mess so Lando doesn't completely wig out and kick us out of his…" She stopped- and seized his face in both hands.

"What the- _Luke!_ You're… you're _transparent_."

"My face too?" Luke reached up to feel his nose in a panic.

Admittedly, it wasn't _complete_ transparency- the world through the other side of his body existed as a slightly blue-tinted blurred halo of colors, like the view through the distorted lens of kaleidoscope. But when Luke pulled his arm out of Chewie's grasp to place by the Dejarik board, it was clear to see that it definitely wasn't solid either- as wavering and uncertain as the little holographic avatars moving about the board.

"Did this just happen?" Leia raised a hand to her forehead, circling her brother's body in bewilderment. "When? What? _How?_ "

Luke's eyes lifted to meet his sister's, and his brow wrinkled. "Leia… you too." he spoke softly. "Look at your hands."

Almost reluctantly, Leia lifted her own hands to eyelevel. The outline of her brother's flabbergasted face was clearly visible through them. "Me too," she repeated in a whisper.

Chewie glanced down at his own arms, but they were the same solid, furry paws. He looked up at the two. "Rhhooaaaagh."

A nervous chuckle escaped Luke. "We… we kind of look like Force ghosts."

Chewbacca gave a low growl, glancing from one twin to the other as he shook his head slowly in disbelief.

There was an extremely long pause. Then Luke shifted in his seat. "What the Dagobah was in that water?"

* * *

"So I take it you need my help in returning to this time planet?" Lando shot the question over his shoulder casually as the crew explored the private lounge room in the back of the ship.

"You were headed back in that direction anyway, right?" Rey cut a sharp look in his direction, as though daring him to say otherwise.

Lando nodded, surveying the lot of them with a thoughtful expression as he tapped his chin. "Yes, of course. It's scarcely any trouble on my part, and to be honest I'd enjoy the company. It gets a little… tedious, having to travel these missions alone. Even Lobot doesn't know where I go when I head off. The fewer people that know about the place, the better."

"If only it had stayed that way," Obi-Wan sighed, and shook his head. "Then we wouldn't be in this mess."

"It'll take a fair bit to get to the time planet from this sector of the galaxy, so you may want to get some sleep while you can," Lando continued. "However, I never expected to have so many guests at once, so I'm afraid I don't have much to offer concerning accommodations. You'll have to use the couches here and downstairs."

"You've done so much to help us already," Padme gave the man a grateful bow. "We are indebted to you."

"Think nothing of it." Lando replied smoothly, lifting her hand to his lips for the second time. "It is a _pleasure_ to assist you all."

Padme shot a sideways glance over her shoulder, but Anakin appeared to be too preoccupied to notice the forward gesture that had served to promptly raise his hackles last time. She frowned again, concern for the young Jedi etched across her face.

At that moment the elevator door slid open, and Chewbacca stepped in, hauling both of the twins behind him.

"Ow! Excuse me, I can walk myself, you know!" Both fought against the Wookiee's grip as he dragged them both to the center of the room and dumped them unceremoniously at Han's feet.

"Chewie, what's up?" Han shot a bewildered look at his obviously agitated copilot.

"Oooaaanoooggh!" Chewie grabbed Luke's wrist, jerking it up so that the smuggler could see.

"' _They're transparent?'_ What do you mean, 'they're-"

"Ow, watch it! Are you _trying_ to rip my arm out of my socket?" Luke yanked his arm away, rubbing his sore wrist peevishly.

"What the- hey, they _are_ transparent!" Finn gasped and stepped back in horror. "Both of them!"

"Well... this is an interesting turn of events." Obi-Wan fingered his nonexistent beard in bewilderment.

"What did you put in that water downstairs?" Leia jabbed a loaded forefinger in Lando's face. "Some kind of crazy drug?"

"Darling, you should be concerned about much more than what I put in my water." Lando carefully aimed the small woman's arm away from his face. "No, what appears to be happening to you is much worse than that."

"You know what this is, then?" Rey stepped forward impulsively. "You've seen this happen before?"

Lando nodded. "I've seen it only once before. With myself, in fact." He crossed his arms over his chest with a grim expression. "Those following twenty-four hours were the most terrifying I've ever experienced in my entire life."

The twins shared a weighted look. "What do you mean, exactly?" Luke turned his hands over to examine both sides of them as he phrased the question almost casually. "What's happening to us?"

Lando straightened and ran a hand through his hair, apparently searching for the words to explain. "Let's just say the universe… clings to all chances of life. It ' _wants'_ life to exist. Especially if that life already exists. When someone exists, it's rather difficult to erase their…well, existence. To 'delete', so to speak, the footprints... the impressions they leave behind. There's a very delicate line one walks when they meddle with the… oh, what's a good word for it… 'blueprint' of the past -the instructions that will set in motion everything that happens later in the future. When something is done to _disrupt_ these blueprints, a new reality is created. And the old reality, the… _alternate_ reality… begins to fade away."

Luke and Leia turned to stare at one another's transparent bodies, eyes widening as they slowly began to process what the man was saying. "So…"

"Something has been changed about the past… rendering the two of you, well... nonexistent." Lando's strained smile was more of a grimace.

The stunned silence that followed permeated the entire room, settling over all of them as a weighted cloak.

"Well!" Lando clapped his hands together loudly. "The gaming room and bar are downstairs. Take your pick of the couches and seating arrangements and make yourselves comfortable, but _for Bespin's sake_ , get rid of every last remnant of Tatooine on you before you do so! The shower's down the hall to the right. I'll be in the cockpit if anyone… um... needs me..." With that he hurriedly slipped past the lot of them and disappeared down the elevator.

* * *

Rey couldn't sleep. Exhaustion tugged desperately at her sore and weary limbs, but anxiety forced her eyes to remain open. The couch she was lying on had the consistency of supple dough, giving her the impression that she was being swallowed into its spongy interior. She squirmed, attempting to shift herself into a more stable position, but she just continued to sink further. Lando had indeed taken his 'comfortable' mantra to heart.

"Finn." She spoke towards the ceiling. "Are you awake?"

When she received no answer, she rolled over to peer at him on the couch opposite hers. He was sprawled out on his stomach, his face squashed into his own ever-sinking couch, snoring; she figured he was going to suffocate himself if allowed to continue sleeping in that position much longer. Leaning over, she poked him in the shoulder.

"Hey. Wake up." The careful poke elicited no response, so she resorted to shaking him. "Finn! Wake up."

He did so, his voice slurred. "Huh?"

"I can't sleep."

Finn gave her a blank look. "Um… okay."

"How are you even able to sleep right now?" Rey persisted. "I just… can't stop thinking."

"Thinking… about Luke and Leia?" Finn blinked sluggishly. "I'm trying my very best not to."

"Thinking about everything that we've managed to screw up." Rey massaged her forehead wearily. "It's just… a lot to think about."

"Tell me about it." Finn dropped his face into the couch with a muffled moan.

There was a brief silence, and Rey sighed and turned to face the ceiling again. "Finn? Can I tell you something?"

"Hm?" Finn did his best to appear attentive, but in truth his eyelids were behaving like solid bricks.

"I have no clue what I'm doing."

"I know," Finn said simply.

"What?" Rey rolled over to meet his gaze in bewilderment. "You do? Then why have you been going along with me all this time?"

"Because I trust you." Finn rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow, eyeing her seriously. "I trust your judgment. And I trust your determination to make things right."

Rey's face flooded with a startled- and secretly pleased- blush, but she pressed on. "I just… it feels like everyone is depending on me. Because I sort of… took charge on Tatooine. And now I can't seem to get rid of that responsibility. Before, I was perfectly happy following the orders of Obi-Wan and Leia and the others because… I knew that _they_ knew what they were doing. Now, it's just me and you and _Poe_ who know what's going on. And it's _we_ who have to make the decision whether or not we should try to fix it in the first place. You know?"

Finn said nothing, only waited patiently for her to go on. After a moment, she did. "It's kind of like what you said earlier. What if this was _meant_ to happen? What if we're supposed to just… leave it alone?"

She became more animated, her hands gesturing towards the ceiling. "Sure, there's Luke and Leia. What happens if _they_ don't exist anymore? Something we did… whether directly or indirectly… did this to them. It just doesn't seem… right."

Rey dropped her arms limply to her sides, setting her teeth in frustration. "But then… a world without _Darth Vader_. That's a good thing, right? So many people died because of him. If he never existed… that's a good thing… right?" Her voice dropped so low that Finn had to strain to hear it. "What if in destroying the world as we know it, we're actually making it right again? What if… what if this is our... _destiny?_ "

Finn was silent for a moment, thinking. "When I was a stormtrooper," he spoke up finally, "I was told that the First Order was my 'destiny'. That I had the power to do great things for the good of the entire galaxy. I was told that my path was already predetermined, that I had always been destined to be a stormtrooper, a loyal servant of the First Order. I couldn't escape it. It was in my DNA." He paused for a moment, frowning slightly. "It wasn't until that first battle on Jakku that I realized that maybe I didn't _want_ that destiny."

He met Rey's gaze. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't… but also _wouldn't_. Choosing to rescue Poe... went against everything I'd ever been taught, everything I'd ever been told about my entire future. It was… terrifying. But deep down, I knew. I knew that it was the right thing to do." Finn gave a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his neck in a sudden attack of bashfulness. "Sorry, I know that sounds a little weird-"

"No, I understand what you're trying to say," Rey leaned over to squeeze his hand gratefully, unaware of the sudden heat that flooded her friend's face at the gesture. "You're saying… I have a choice."

"Yeah." Finn nodded. "I think… whatever happens next… is up to you. To all of us."

"That's harder," Rey mused. "That's a lot harder than just following a definite path set out for us."

"But it's also kind of exciting, isn't it?" Finn confessed. "To be freethinking creatures, and not… pre-programmed robots."

"It's still hard." Rey flopped back onto her couch with a groan. "I just can't stop thinking about all the _new_ mistakes I could make. And be responsible for."

"Well… just know that we're in this together." Finn returned the pressure to her hand. "Whatever happens… we'll all deal with it together."

"Yeah." Rey closed her eyes as she lay back on her couch, speaking softly. "Thank you, Finn. For everything."

Finn smiled in an almost embarrassed manner. "I didn't do anything, but okay," he stammered. Falling back to lay down again, he attempted to gently pull his hand away from hers. However, her grip tightened, and he stopped. He lay very still for a good stint of time with his arm stretched across the empty space between their two couches, simply staring up into the ceiling, reluctant to move for fear of disturbing her.

Finally, he worked up the courage to whisper into the ceiling. "Hey, Rey. My arm is starting to hurt."

When he received no answer, he tried again. "Rey. You awake?" The observation deck was silent. "Rey?" Blinking uncertainly, he once again tried to carefully pull his fingers out of her hand, but her grip was like iron. "Oh come on, I _know_ you're not asleep. You're smiling. Stop smiling. Let go of my hand. _Rey…_ " With an exaggerated sigh, he smiled a bit as well. Giving her hand a final, brief squeeze, he settled deeper into his cushions and closed his eyes.


	19. Chapter 19

***Cautionary note*: This chapter contains a flashback consisting of graphically detailed Revenge of the Sith violence. I've done my best to keep it within the PG-13 rating of the overall fic, but I still wanted to give a heads-up just in case it still comes as a bit of a shock to some.**

* * *

Obi-Wan opened his eyes to the darkness of empty space, enveloped in the spiraling blur of color that was hyperspace. Startled, it was only his frantic scramble and subsequent tumble from the couch he had been lying on that reminded him where he was. Perhaps it had not been the brightest of ideas to have chosen to take a nap in the _observation deck_ of all places.

He remained sitting on the cold floor as he pressed two finger to his temple wearily, trying to recall what he had just been dreaming about. It had not been a good dream. Yet no matter how hard he concentrated the memory continued to elude him, slipping through his grasp like water, serving only to soak his conscious mind in ice. He was left with a sense of apprehension in the pit of his stomach that, unlike the dream itself, refused to leave. Blinking, he shook his head as though to clear it, and got to his feet.

Machinery hissed, and Lando stepped out of the elevator. Catching sight of the Jedi, he nodded a greeting. "I've just come to let everyone know we're just about to come out of hyperspace. We should be entering atmosphere shortly."

"Good." Obi-Wan nodded absentmindedly, still trying to shake away the cold, heavy weight that had settled over his body. "I'll wake the others."

"No need," Lando lifted a finger with a knowing smirk. "The atmosphere will do that for you." As though in answer, the ship hit a violent bout of turbulence, shaking the others out of their own slumber.

Obi-Wan chuckled a bit to himself as the rest of the companions woke with a cacophony of groans. "Rise and shine, everyone. We've got a lot of work to do ahead of us."

"I'd better get back to the controls now," Lando tossed a brief salute over his shoulder as he turned back to the elevator.

"Hey, has anyone seen my backpack?" Finn rubbed his reddened eyes confusedly. "It was right here by my head when I fell asleep, but it's gone now."

"Morning, everyone!" Han's voice came from the main deck below them; he and Chewie hadn't made even an attempt at sleep, instead having spent most of their time making use of the Dejarik board and bar. "Ready to head back out into that sand and scorching sun?" He threw his arms out wide. "I know I am. I just _love_ running around in the desert for no real reason."

Padmé's braided updo was a bit flattened on one side, and she did the best she could to fix it with her fingers. "Thank you, Han. That is just the sort of positivity we need right now," she yelled back.

"Seriously though- where's my backpack?" Finn attempted to lift the couch beside him to look underneath before realizing it was bolted to the floor. "It was right here."

Obi-Wan glanced around. "Has anyone seen Luke and Leia recently?"

"I think they were in the engineering room last I checked," Padmé's overly casual tone poorly concealed the concern just underneath. "They said they wanted to be left alone."

Obi-Wan grimaced, but quickly smoothed his face into a calm nod as he made his way to the back of the ship.

The door to the engineering room was already wide open as he turned the corner, and he found them both sitting on the floor opposite one another, gazes focused pointedly on the ground. Kenobi couldn't help but notice how the two wavering pale-blue figures looked extremely out of place amongst the muted greys of the computer consoles around them.

They didn't seem to notice his arrival, or else didn't acknowledge it. He hesitated for a moment before clearing his throat. "Did either of you get any sleep?"

"What do you think?" Leia glanced up, cocking her head with a wry quirk of her mouth.

Obi-Wan chuckled softly. "Lando says we're getting ready to land."

Luke scrambled to his feet, running a hazy blue hand through his tousled blond hair. "Right. Come on, Leia."

"It's getting worse." Leia's gaze met Obi-Wan's with an ironlike steadiness. She held out her hand.

Obi-Wan lifted his own to meet it hesitantly. Instead of the comforting solidity of a human hand, he felt little more than a slight disturbance as his fingertips went directly through hers, as though he were passing his hands through water. He lifted his eyes to meet hers once again.

"Then we must simply make sure we complete this mission successfully." He gave her a small smile as he folded his arms across his chest, tilting his head slightly to one side. "I will make sure that we do not fail."

* * *

As they continued to descend into the planet's atmosphere, the thick grey fog began to curl away, revealing glimpses of the rocky landscape below. Lando maneuvered the _Virtue_ through the spiraling rock structures in a clearly well-worn pattern, directing the ship's descent with adept hands. The ship came upon a large patch of darkness, a wide, gaping mouth in the sea of dull grey, and the others realized that it was an entrance to the caverns below the planet's crest.

"A bit of exploring that paid off," Lando explained, as he directed the ship down into the black, gaping maw of the planet's underbelly. "It's a lot easier than sinking into the the place, that's for sure." He chuckled. "I'm going to take a wild guess that's how you discovered the caverns as well." At Poe's violent expression, he raised his eyebrows and decided it best to shut his mouth quickly.

The _Virtue_ glided her way through the caverns delicately, a single beam of light stabbing through the blackness to rake along her surroundings before she finally decided on a spot to settle down onto the marshy earth. With a hiss of machinery the gangplank began to lower, and the familiar smell of decay drifted in, permeating the ship. Rey wrinkled her nose and coughed loudly.

Unfazed, Lando bent over to flick on a set of large fans by the hatchway. The others watched as the tendrils of greenish-grey fog recoiled, billowing out in a clear path for them to walk. "Custom built." Lando jabbed a thumb over his shoulder smugly.

Before them lay the time pool, casting its lavender glow across the metal surface of the _Virtue_ 's hull.

"And so we have returned," Padmé murmured softly to herself.

Lando flicked another switch that turned on the ship's exterior floodlights, and the cavern abruptly exploded in brilliant white light. The change was dramatic and jarring, and as everyone's eyes adjusted to the change in brightness, they found that it brought an entirely new mood altogether to the darkness of the cavern. The planet's underbelly was less of a limitless void and more of a twisted collection of mazelike structures. The purple luminescence was gone. The pool before them no longer seemed to glow but rippled softly as ordinary water. The companions surveyed their surroundings for a moment.

"Not so creepy down here when you turn on the lights," Finn remarked finally.

The ground squelched as Obi-Wan stepped closer to the time pool. They were still there, those surges of movement underneath the surface where there should have been none. Beneath his wriggling reflection there flashed glimpses of scenes from times and places that did not belong at the bottom of any ordinary pool of water. Some he recognized. Others he didn't. Most of it was too blurred to make out. He flinched suddenly and pulled away.

"Turns out those cave creatures aren't big fans of light," Lando gestured to the floodlights. "I had a particularly nasty confrontation with a couple of them once, and that was one too many times for me. This way I can see the things coming _long_ before they get those repulsive slimy tentacles around my throat."

"Tell me about it," Luke growled under his breath.

"Hey- What is that?" Finn glanced back at the others in bewilderment, pointing to a large pillar that stood at the far end of the time pool, just barely brushing the water's edge.

A twisted mass of vine-like tendrils wound around the pillar, coiling around the rock structure until it hit the ceiling of the cavern, where it continued to branch out along the underbelly of the planet's surface, apparently supporting it. Most were a pale, fleshy color, knotted and coiled in slime-oozing contortions.

Obi-Wan gave a surprised huff. "We must not have noticed it last time because it was so dark."

"Not to mention a bit distracted," Leia rolled her eyes.

"That?" Lando scratched his head. "To tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure. I just call it The Tree. The Tree of Contingency _._ " He placed his hands behind his back with a brisk nod.

Rey squinted up at the tendrils. "It doesn't look much like a tree."

"'Disgusting Mass of Oozing Tendrils' didn't feel quite as tasteful." Lando waved her comment off with an irritated hand. "From what I've gathered, I like to think each 'branch' represents everything that _has_ happened and _could_ happen in the history of the universe. Some of them, as you can see, are small. Barely visible to the eye. Others, like this one," he pointed to a single tendril nearly the width of his arm, "Are quite large. Yet they all feed into one another. The minuscule ones intertwine to make small ones, which in turn make up the largest of them all. It's all _connected_."

"I think I understand." Padmé's eyes followed the tendrils' path up the pillar and across the ceiling of the cavern. "For everything that happens, every choice that is made, every consequence that comes about- there are thousands of different outcomes that could have but _did_ _not_ happen. Every time a coin is flipped, there is an equal chance it will either land on its head or its tail. For either side that it will land on, we may never know what would happen if it had instead landed on the opposite side. That is simply part of life. Learning to accept and work with one's circumstances, rather than bemoaning how reality could be different."

"Except, now..." Rey murmured thoughtfully to herself, "...Now, it seems we've been given the chance to do that very thing. To see how things would have been different." She rubbed her hands together nervously, as though for warmth. She was almost reluctant as she stepped forward, and peered down into the time pool for the first time.

Rey wasn't sure what she had expected to see. But it certainly hadn't been the rush of images that immediately assaulted her from all sides. Smoke, drifting in colossal columns from the ornate building engulfed in flames. Small bodies sprawled across the floor like the pitiful forms of lifeless rag dolls, fixed with the glassy-eyed stares and ugly contortions of death. The blaze of liquid fire that leapt into the air in a display of impassioned glory, equalled in fury only by the blur of twin blue blades of light above it. The screams of the young man that were equal parts anguished and maniacally enraged as the same fire methodically ate its way up his mutilated body. Rey screamed along with him, but her voice was ripped away by the overwhelming agony that had enveloped her. She was trapped. Imprisoned. She _was_ him. She could feel the fire tearing into her flesh, turning her body into ash even as she still lived and fought so desperately against it. She grasped at the crumbling black rock around her with a convulsive grip, desperate for any escape, any liberation from the _pain_ , the pain that was _everywhere_. She caught the glitter of something like pity in her assailant's eyes before the lightsaber blade mercifully descended in the final blow.

That was it. Nothing more than the miserable end of a miserable life. No hesitation. No second chances. Only the final descent of a pained and brutally twisted soul.

"Rey. Rey!"

She broke through the surface of the darkness, emerging gasping for breath and drenched in a cold sweat. There were hands everywhere, pulling her back. Poe had her arm, eyes wide and questioning. Lando's voice came from somewhere in the foggy haze.

"Is she _insane?_ Good mother of moons, she nearly gave me a _heart attack_ leaning that far out over- just think, if she had fallen in just then, who knows where and _when_ we would have lost her to..."

"Are you alright?" Finn shoved the others out of the way, panic showing plainly on his face. "You look awful."

"Hey, give her some room." Obi-Wan ordered. "Let her breath, at least." The others stepped back in reluctant acquiescence, but Rey gripped Finn's arm, digging her fingernails in so that he winced at the force.

"Finn," she managed to hiss. "It was him. It was Obi-Wan."

"What?"

"It was Obi-Wan." Rey sucked in a shaky breath. "Obi-Wan killed Ana-Vader. On Mustafar."

She let go of his arm suddenly, pulling back to wrap her own arms around herself. The raw agony, the rush of sudden fear, fear of the end- it had all been so real. It was difficult to adjust. She flinched at the hand that came to rest on her shoulder, and looked up into Obi-Wan's sea-green eyes.

His voice was soft. "I saw it too."

"You saw something?" Finn glanced back at Rey in bewilderment. "What- was this like a vision or something?"

Rey ducked her head and bit her lip.

"I saw it too." The corner of Kenobi's mouth lifted slightly, and he chuckled mirthlessly. He paused. "You say he was like my... brother? In this… other reality?"

"You loved him." Rey nodded, and was surprised by the sudden threat of tears.

Obi-Wan was silent for a moment. "Pity," he finally said softly.

Rey flinched as though struck by the casual manner in which he spoke. He _was_ sorry- there was no doubt about that. He was and always had been a compassionate man. Of _course_ he could feel remorse for the fall and pain of a fellow Jedi. But he didn't truly understand. Anakin was merely another face, another name to him. His assassination had been a mere mercy mission. An order from Yoda, to be carried out immediately.

He didn't truly _care_.

The silence was broken by Poe clearing his throat. Shooting a swift glance around at the others, he carefully tapped Rey on the shoulder, but she appeared to be lost in some sort of contemplative trance. Lifting his gaze to meet Finn's, he raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

Finn cleared his own throat as well. "Um… right. Come on, everyone. We'd better get going." He shot Luke and Leia a trepidatious look before swiftly glancing back at Rey again. "We don't know how much time we have until… uh… something happens." In an attempt to look confident, he punched his fist into his palm. "So let's make it count."

"Hooray. I'm all for existing again," Leia muttered.

Luke nodded fervently in agreement. "Just tell us anything we gotta do, and we'll do it."

Poe nodded, waving a hand for the others to follow him back onto the _Virtue_. They did so quickly, and Lando slipped away to slide into the cockpit to initiate the launch sequence without any further ado. The wind and vibrations that burst forth from the purring engines blasted away the surrounding fog, causing the slippery planet's surface above them to peel back in ripple-like waves. The _Virtue_ hovered in the air above the time pool for a moment before she angled downward, and they were for the second time enveloped in the same star-streaked darkness of before.

This time they were ready for the subsequent gut-blow of motion sickness, but it nevertheless failed to prevent the collective quiet gasp and immediate tight shutting of their mouths. Rey looked positively ill, and Finn reached down to squeeze her hand anxiously. The feeling was just as quickly replaced by the sudden blaze of sunlight, and there were not a few groans of blinded pain. There was a gentle thump and a whir of puttering engines, and Lando released the gangplank.

The heat came in almost immediately, blasting sand and arid air into the air-conditioned interior. "Ahh! Hurry up and get out so I can shut the blasted door!" Lando yelped. "Ugh, my poor upholstery… Anyway, I'll be back around 32 BBY to pick you all up." He yelled after them, and chuckled as he sat back in his chair. "Hehe, I've always wanted to say something like that. Oh- and you'd better not do anything stupid that would meddle with anything concerning _my_ affairs or subsistence, or else I will personally travel directly to whenever you are and murder you all, existing or no!"

"We'll keep that in mind," Han threw a cocky salute over his shoulder. The gangplank pulled upward and the _Virtue_ took off in a whirlwind of sand, already streaking away into the infinite blue of the planet's atmosphere.


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello again everyone, and welcome to all the new readers out there! As always, I hope you're having a fantastic day.**

* * *

Padmé turned from squinting after the _Virtue_ to glance down into the blinding white light reflecting off of the familiar form of the ship buried halfway in the sand beside them. "Good, there's the _Falcon_. Just as we left it."

"Yeah, _unfortunately_ ," Han muttered. "Every time I see her like this I'm reminded why this 'mission' has been nothing but a total disaster."

"Cheer up, everyone," Obi-Wan remarked. "We're close to ending this leg of the journey."

"Yeah, and then we _still_ have Kylo Ren to bother with," Luke grumbled.

The companions slid down the sand dune towards the _Falcon_ , blinking in the shadows as they stepped inside her dim, sandy interior. After the pristine cleanliness of the _Virtue_ , the _Falcon's_ dingy white walls looked even more trashy and deteriorated than usual. Regardless, Han ran his hands along her walls fondly, relieved to be inside his own ship again. He sank into the cockpit with a sigh, and jiggled the dead control yoke listlessly.

"Blast it, I forgot to ask Lando about a new engine for her." The smuggler patted the computer console with a bad-tempered frown. "But don't you worry, old girl. I'll get you back off the ground as soon as I possibly can." He glanced over his shoulder swiftly before lowered his voice to a whisper as he pulled the pair of dangling dice down from above his chair, shoving them in his pocket. "We're going to come back for you, I swear."

"Sit down, Rey," Finn ordered his friend sternly, directing her into the relative privacy of the cargo hold. "You look like you're about to throw up any second."

"No I'm fine, really," Rey protested weakly. "Just a little shaken, that's all. I've never burned to death in lava before." Her laugh was more of a breathless giggle.

"I think you're still in shock," Finn shook his head worriedly. "That must have been some vision you had."

"Still, it explains a lot of things," Rey sank down onto a large crate with the markings 'Highly Flammable' scrawled across the lid in Han's belligerent handwriting. "Like why Vader doesn't exist anymore. Because he's dead, duh." Instead of the short laugh she had intended, a heavy shudder ran through her body. "And the twins," she continued hurriedly, "There would have been no real reason to keep the twins separate, since Palpatine assumed them dead. The main objective then would simply be training them in secret to take down Emperor Palpatine, as Obi-Wan and Yoda failed to do. I guess they hoped that, together, Luke and Leia might have a better chance of defeating him."

Simultaneously, both glanced down the hallway at the two pale blue figures conversing in low tones just outside the entry ramp. "Or… _could_ have," Rey added reluctantly. "Although I still don't quite understand why they wouldn't exist anymore. I'm pretty sure Padmé was already pregnant by the time Vader was killed."

"It's weird how their, um… _non-existence_ seems to be happening gradually," Finn muttered, almost as though to himself. "I mean, everything and every _one_ else changed instantaneously. Why is this particular change taking so long to happen?"

"It's almost as though it's happening in real time," Rey agreed with a frown. "Which doesn't make any sense." She tensed suddenly as a peculiar sense of warning slid down her spine, and spun around to glance up just as Han and Chewie walked past. Something about their general aura signaled an alarm bell inside her head.

"Hey, where are you two going?" she called after them, to which both jumped and spun around.

"Hey." Han shrugged nonchalantly, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"Um… what are you doing?" Finn watched as Rey slowly got to her feet, staring the smuggler down suspiciously.

"Nothing," Han said quickly. "Simply going to... assess the damage to the engine. Yup. That's what we're doing."

Rey raised a single eyebrow. "With your blaster hidden under your jacket?"

"Can't be helped, Chewie." Han shrugged to his copilot before pulling the weapon out, pointing it directly between Finn's eyes. "Too bad. I didn't want to turn this into a big scene." Both Finn and Rey raised their hands above their heads as the smuggler took a step back, giving the two a wide berth as his blaster arm darted between them.

"Well! This little trip has been nice and all," he announced, "But sadly, Chewie and I really must be going. We've had enough traipsing around the galaxy on some delusional mission. We're out." He tilted his head to one side as he waved his free hand over his shoulder at his copilot impatiently. "Alright buddy, let's go."

The Wookiee growled uncertainly, showing evident reluctance in pointing his own weapon at the others.

"No, _they don't need us!_ " Han shot back. "Will you quit saying that? We've gotta get out of here while we have the chance. Don't you get it, Chewie? We're in a _completely different time period._ Know what that means? No Jabba. No bounty. No worries. We start fresh. Clean slate. _Without_ any more clumsy bounty hunter goons tromping halfway across the galaxy after us."

"I can't let you leave," Rey said quietly.

"Hah!" Han smiled widely. "That's cute."

With bewildering speed, Rey yanked Finn's blaster from his side, pointing it deliberately at the smuggler's face. Chewie immediately lifted his crossbow with a roar of outrage, to which Poe, having at that moment turned the corner just in time to witness the gesture, swiftly pulled up his rifle with a low growl of his own. Finn threw his arms out between the two parties in a panic.

"Whoa, hey, stop!" he yelped, glancing from one to the other wildly. "What's going on? Rey, Poe, put your blasters down!"

The others, hearing the Wookiee's agitated roar, appeared around the corner as well, skidding to a halt as they took in the scene.

"W...What's going on here?" Obi-Wan asked in disbelief.

"Get out of the way, Finn," Rey urged.

Han blinked around Finn's head at the young scavenger. "Oh, so you're going to _shoot_ me now? Some heroes you lot turned out to be."

"You don't understand," Rey replied calmly, her finger resting firmly on the trigger. "You can't leave. Not until we fix this. You're not yourself right now. You just have to trust me. I don't want to hurt you."

Chewie growled menacingly, without removing his crosshairs from the girl's forehead. Poe's grip tightened on his own weapon as he took a step forward, aiming steadily at the Wookiee from across the cargo bay.

"Rey, put the gun down," Obi-Wan's voice was low and urgent.

" _Trust_ me."

"So that's it? We're all supposed to stay here… just because you _need_ us to?" Han's upper lip curled scornfully. He leaned back and gestured around the ship with his free hand as Rey's blaster tip followed his every movement. "And the rest of you are going along with this? Oh, please. Give me one good reason to trust you, kiddo. Hm? Because right now it seems like all you've done is have us run in circles and loop-de-loops through time. What's the point of all this, anyway? Go on. Give me one good reason."

"Your friends," Rey replied immediately. "You gave up everything for them. There's no way I'm going to let all of that come to nothing."

"Who?" Han tilted his head to one side with another disbelieving scoff.

"Back on the time planet," Rey glanced out the hatchway, where the twins still stood outside the entry ramp, apparently oblivious to the tension exuding in waves from the ship just behind them, "You told me you didn't know why you'd stayed with them for so long. That you weren't sure why it had been so hard to just leave, to turn your back on them. You kept saying that you'd just been dragged into the rebellion by accident. Then why didn't you leave?"

"I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about," Han shifted his grip on his blaster in uncertainty.

"Of course you don't. Because in _this_ reality, you don't know what that means. You never joined the Rebellion. The names of _Luke Skywalker_ and _Leia Organa_ are foreign to you. They don't exist. You never knew that sense of friendship. That sense of _belonging."_

"What kind of… Are you just making this stuff up now?" Han looked outraged. "That's completely ridiculous. Chewie and I have never seen those two before in our lives, save for this weird 'mission'. You know that." He managed to shoot a sideways glance at the others across the cargo bay. "Is anyone else hearing any of this? And we're all just following this kid's story without question?"

"She's telling the truth," Finn spoke up angrily. "Listen to her!"

"Of course you would say that." Han rolled his eyes. "The two of you are practically _glued_ by the hand. You're pretty much obliged to stand by whatever she says."

"That's not true," Finn spat. "I'm not defending her because I feel I have some sort of an obligation. I'm defending her because I know she's right!"

"Everyone." Padmé's voice lifted steadily from the other end of the cargo bay. "Put your weapons down. There's a better way to resolve this that doesn't involve lasers. There always is."

Chewie, however, still looked uncertain. For a moment, his weapon wavered in its steady aim, and his eyes shot a lightning glance in the direction of the door- not at the desert outside but at the two pale blue figures surveying the rugged landscape.

Encouraged by his hesitation, Rey pressed onward. "I'm not making this up." She ducked her head almost shyly, her gaze becoming slightly unfocused as she remembered. "As a small child, there wasn't a favorite legend I wanted to hear that wasn't about the princess, the farmboy, and the scoundrel. The legendary trio. Inseparable." She laughed lightly, for a moment forgetting where she was. "Princess Leia was my idol, of course. But I looked up to _all_ of you. I wanted to be just like you. Brave. Clever. Compassionate. _Heroes_."

"That's where you're wrong, kid." Han shook his head with a smirk. "I've never been a hero, and I never will be."

"That's not true," Rey shot back. "You've spent your whole life telling yourself that, and you're proud of what it means to you. And I think you almost, _almost..._ believe it. But you've always had that part of you that told you otherwise. I know because I've seen it." Her grip on the blaster in her hand tightened so that her knuckles turned a tense white. "I've _seen_ it."

Han just shook his head in disbelief as he began to back away slowly. "If you think a sappy, sentimental speech is going to convince me I need to stay with this group of loony time travelers, think again. If anything, you've just convinced me how much of a bunch of deranged nutcases you all are." He took a step sideways, eyeing the doorway with fresh enthusiasm. "I have no clue how Chewie and I got mixed up in this mess in the first place, but we've had enough of your screwy games. So have a nice day, and we'll just be on our way now."

"Okay," Rey said simply. "I didn't want to have to do this." And she pulled the trigger.

Even as the smuggler crumpled to the floor she lunged forward, flattening both Finn and herself to the floor as Chewbacca's laser bolt blazed over their heads, blasting a large scorch mark in the wall just behind them. Poe's retaliation shots buried themselves into the ground at his feet as Padmé pounced on him with catlike speed, knocking the rifle flying from his hands. Before either the pilot or Wookiee could collect themselves for another round, Obi-Wan had them both thrown back against opposite walls with a powerful Force thrust. With a quick flick of either wrist, both weapons were swiftly removed safely out of reach.

"WHAT THE HELL, REY!" Finn yelled as soon as she lifted her hand from shoving his face into the floor.

"It's okay!" Rey dropped her blaster hurriedly, as though burned by it, raising empty palms above her head as both Padmé and Obi-Wan turned for her next. "It was just a stun! All I did was knock him out for a while, I swear!"

"You could have _warned_ us first!" Padmé snarled, running up to kick the weapon away into the crates behind them. "Poe nearly had Chewbacca's head for swiss cheese!"

Chewie roared his agreement from across the room.

"I _said_ I didn't want to hurt them! And I never meant to!" Rey protested. "I didn't think Poe was going to _actually_ open fire!"

"Time!" Poe shot back furiously from the opposite end of the cargo bay.

Rey's rush of adrenaline was rapidly becoming replaced by a sense of cold dread. "I couldn't let him leave," she repeated, the uncertainty showing plainly on her face. "Not when we're so close to fixing this." She took in a deep breath. "Please. Chewie…" She stepped forward towards the Wookiee hesitantly. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to do it. But I had to. You understand, don't you? I didn't hurt him, I promise."

The Wookiee gave a low growl in response.

"You're not going to… you're not going to try and… um... _throttle_ me if Obi-Wan lets you up…" Rey pressed in a small voice, "...Are you?"

Chewbacca's eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth in a menacing growl.

The girl flinched. "Please. I promise, everything will be alright soon. Very soon. We have to bring Luke and Leia back. To save them. I just need you to trust me."

Cautiously, Kenobi released his hold on the Wookiee, setting him carefully on the ground again. Chewbacca immediately pushed past Rey, crouching down beside Han where the smuggler lay unconscious. After a moment of making sure his friend was indeed alright, he finally stood up again, growling something under his breath.

"It's for his own good." Rey whispered softly. "Just trust me."

Chewbacca folded his arms across his chest and caught Rey's gaze directly, and she wilted slightly under the intensity of his stare. Finally, his furred head bobbed in an almost undetectable nod.

"Thank you," Rey whispered. She let her breath out in a heaved sigh of relief, surprised at how much the Wookiee's consent meant to her.

At that moment, the twins trotted in. "We'd better get a move on," Leia announced, glancing back out the hatchway behind her. "I can see the sandstorm already gathering on the horizon. We haven't much-" She trailed off, at that moment catching sight of Han's unconscious body at her feet.

"Holy Sith," Luke remarked, "What happened here?"

"Nothing," Rey said quickly.

"You're right, we should really get going." Padmé suddenly adopted the brisk, administrative tone she only used when undertaking a difficult task. "However, _you two_ will need to stay here." Her finger wagged between the twins sternly.

"Wait, why?" Luke protested. "I don't want to stay here!"

"You'll need all the help you can get out there," Leia agreed angrily.

"I know, but we can't really have anyone seeing you while you're in this state." Obi-Wan spoke up in reluctance. "It's going to be impossible to explain if anyone sees two ghostly-looking figures walking around with us."

"But I don't want to stay here!" Luke complained. "Leia and I never get to do any of the fun stuff."

"Oh, you mean like turning cantinas into madhouses and having us track you halfway across the desert?" Finn snapped unexpectedly. "Yeah, poor you."

"Poe, could you stay too?" Rey turned to question the Resistance pilot. "We could use someone to... um... help hold down the base."

"Excuse me?" Luke cut in again. "Why are Leia and I not capable of doing that ourselves? He and his piddling little rifle aren't going to be able to do much if another krayt dragon comes along!"

"Yes, like non-existent lightsabers are going to do much better!" Rey suddenly burst out. "Just shut up already, will you? You don't know just _how much_ I'm looking forward to fixing time and getting back the versions of you that aren't so abysmally arrogant and whiny! We're trying to save your blasted skins, and all you two can do is complain!"

A stunned silence followed this outburst. It appeared that, for once, the twins were at a loss for words.

Rey made a vicious swipe across her face with her sleeve, sweeping away the glitter in the corner of her eye that threatened a flood down her cheeks at any moment. "Stupid sand getting in my eyes," she growled, and tried to pretend like she wasn't blinking twenty times a second. She colored a bit as the others gaped at her, but set her teeth in stubborn silence, making it clear that she didn't intend to take any of it back, either.

Poe, who had been witnessing the exchange with a measure of poorly concealed amusement, snorted, quickly masking the noise behind a loud cough. Then he realized Rey was still waiting for an answer. He crossed his arms with a plainly dissatisfied expression, indicating that he would much rather accompany the others outside, but was reluctant to be accused of pettiness as well.

Rey sighed and leaned closer to speak to the pilot in an undertone. "The truth is, I need someone who knows what's going on. Just… you know. To keep an eye on things back here."

He looked at her through narrowed eyes for a moment, and seemed to make up his mind about something. He shot a quick glance at Chewbacca and the twins and frowned, but nodded anyway.

"Good, that's settled then." Rey clapped her hands together and bit her lip, finally failing at keeping her excitement hidden any longer. They were going to do it. They really were going to fix everything.

Finn took in a deep breath, and let it out abruptly. "Okay then. Let's go save Darth Maul."

* * *

 **Yes, I know, this is an awful place to end a chapter. I really thought this was going to be the one where we finally get this particular plot point resolved already. But, however much I wanted to fit everything in one huge, whopping chapter, there was _so much_ necessary to include for multiple characters' arcs that it just wouldn't really work, narratively speaking. So I had to split it in two. Next chapter's a big one. :)**


	21. Chapter 21

"I hate this." Luke paced back and forth across the floor in agitation. "I really hate this. Not being able to do anything." He threw his hands into the air angrily. "We're practically useless!"

 _You and me both, bud._

Poe lay flat on his back, arms beneath his head as he stared up into the ceiling. _What am I even doing here?_ he thought bitterly. _I've contributed exactly nothing to this mission._

He'd never been one to sit still. A triggerhappy flyboy. 'One hell of a pilot'. The Resistance's shining star.

And now where was he? Stuck on the ground with a Wookiee, two annoying holograms, and an unconscious smuggler for company.

 _What I would give to be in the cockpit of an X-Wing right now._

Chewie tilted his head to one side and continued to eye the young pilot warily, but Poe had stopped acknowledging the Wookiee's pointed glances.

"We can only hope the others do their job and don't screw everything up again," Leia muttered. She fingered the pale blue lightsaber in her hand, flipping it over in her fingers absently.

"Onaaaaarrrgrrrr," Chewie shrugged and settled further into the seat cushion.

"So... Is anyone going to bother telling us how the smuggler guy ended up like this?" Luke eyed Han's limp body and folded his arms across his chest with a frown. "Or are we just supposed to guess?"

 _All I can say is that you should always try to keep on Rey's good side._ Poe shook his head, still not entirely over the shock of the alarming turn of events that had taken place only minutes before. He was quite aware of the fact that he had been fully prepared to pull the trigger on Chewbacca if necessary. To protect Rey. He could only repeatedly mentally thank Padmé for keeping her head and in doing so preventing the Wookiee from losing his. He rubbed his upper arm musingly. _I really gotta stop doing that, doing things without thinking._

"Don't expect any kind of answer," Leia toyed with her lightsaber carelessly. "He can't talk, remember?"

"Oh, right."

Poe's lip twitched in irritation, but he didn't say anything. He knew better than to bother to. Instead, he got up, pushing between the twins to slump into the booth behind the dejarik board with a frustrated sigh.

 _Stupid head injuries. Just my luck, too._ _This is so humiliating. Why can't I talk?_

 _I'm Poe. Not 'poor guy had an accident' Poe- Resistance star Poe. X-Wing ace Poe. 'One hell of a pilot' Poe. I'm still_ Poe, _in all of the ways that really matter._

 _Damn, I miss flying._

He closed his eyes and bit back a groan. _I gotta get back in the cockpit. If I could just get my hands on an X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE-fighter, anything! I could prove I've still got it._ _I think I'm going crazy just sitting here doing nothing. Useless indeed._ His fingers tapped out an irate pattern on top of the dejarik board.

 _I hate this._

He slammed a clenched fist onto the table, making Chewbacca beside him jump at the unexpected noise. The shock of the blow switched on the game board beneath his hand, and the small holographic characters leapt up between his fingers. He watched as the twins stared at the wavering figures, dark expressions of a whirlpool of emotions mirrored on each others' faces. He sighed, and glanced down at his clenched hands before lifting them to rub his face wearily.

 _Don't worry. They'll fix this. We just have to trust them._

He was brought out of his thoughts by a furry paw bumping against his shoulder. Chewbacca gestured towards the dejarik board with a questioning tilt of his head. A clear message: _No hard feelings?_

Poe considered the gesture for a moment, but he couldn't help the quirk of a smile that lifted the very corner of his mouth. With a halfhearted groan, he bent over to make the first move. _Yeah. Sorry for, you know, nearly blowing your brains out and all that, buddy._

He shot one last glance up at the twins before turning back to the game, willing the two to read the message he was sending. _Don't worry. They won't let us down._

He shook his head once again in slow disbelief. _Rey will make sure of that._

* * *

The trudge through the desert felt twice as slow and tedious as the first time. Rey, however, struggled through the shifting sand with an iron determinedness, every step purposeful and resolved. The others dragged themselves along behind her, far less energetic but grudgingly encouraged onward by her evident excitement.

Her enthusiasm only seemed to increase when the wind began to pick up and swirling sand began to envelop their surroundings.

"There's the sandstorm," she called back over her shoulder cheerfully, shielding her eyes from the grit as it bombarded her face mercilessly. "We should be nearby."

"Be careful," Obi-Wan called, and coughed as sand hit the back of his throat before he lifted his collar to cover the lower half of his face. "I'm no expert on time travel, but I'm pretty sure we don't want our past selves somehow managing to see us."

Rey nodded impatiently before glancing up and immediately hitting the sand. "Get down!" The others crawled their way up the dune beside her to peer over the edge as well.

The metallic glint of something large loom over them, the purr of engines blasting their faces in a wave of sand. "There's the ship," Padmé said in relief. "Just as we encountered it the first time, just on the opposite side. That means we should be seeing Qui-Gon and Darth Maul right about… there?" She gestured into the storm with a frown, as there was nothing there to be seen.

"It's hard to get a bearing in this wind," Obi-Wan muttered, shielding his eyes to little avail. "I can't see a thing."

"You… you do have an actual plan for how to fix all this, right?" Finn leaned over to speak to Rey privately in a low voice.

"Of course," Rey looked offended. "You didn't think I'd come all the way out here without a conceivable plan, did you?"

"Well... I've just sort of been thinking." Finn admitted, almost sheepishly. "Won't this interference with the past cause some sort of paradox? And make the entire universe explode or something? Because what happens when there's no longer any need to go back in time to stop ourselves from killing Darth Maul? Then we'd never actually go back and do it in the first place, and in turn never actually stop ourselves from doing it, and it all becomes one big circle of nausea-inducing time-travel messiness."

"And you're asking all these questions _now?_ " Rey rolled her eyes, but her laugh was goodnatured. "Not if we successfully make a clean loop, it won't. By using time travel, you and I are essentially from a completely _alternate universe_ than our past selves. As long as we make the transition between this universe and the next conceivably smooth, we shouldn't have anything to worry about. All we really need to do is tweak the sequence of events _just enough_ to make a logical pairing of the two timelines. The universe with fill in the rest of the gaps, as long as they're not too large."

"Uh." Finn scratched his cheek with a frown.

"Think about it this way. Remember all those gross tendril things from the time planet?" Rey wriggled her fingers helpfully. "Let's say each one of them represents an _entire universe_. When we time travel, we're simply traveling to that specific universe. When we 'change' a universe, whether on purpose or by accident, a _completely new one_ splits off from the first, containing those changes we made. What we're trying to do right now is simply get _transferred_ from this universe back to our original one. So we just need to make a clean loop in order to successfully connect the two."

"Um… Okay…"

"Let's just say I didn't get any sleep last night," Rey said flatly.

"Yeah, but how do you—"

"Alright, _and_ maybe spent the better portion of it talking to Lando." She admitted with a modest shrug. "He's _way_ better at explaining these things than I am. Trust me, I understand all this about as much as you do."

"Oh. That makes more sense." Finn rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. "So that's why the Jedi Masters never told anyone about the place before now. It's super complicated."

"Which is why, in the hands of Kylo Ren, things could become a complete disaster," Rey's face darkened. "I don't think he really has any clue what all he's getting into."

Finn groaned. "Hoo boy. It would have been so much easier if everyone had just left it all alone."

The stillness that followed was undercut only by the noise of spiraling sand.

"Why is it so quiet?" Padmé spoke up from beside them worriedly. "I hope nothing's wrong."

"We should be able to see their lightsabers from here," Obi-Wan squinted into the storm with a frown.

"I don't see any… wait! There's something crouched down in the sand. Over there, in front of us. Ow!" Finn rubbed at his eyes irritably. "Blasted sandstorm. I can hardly see a thing."

"That's us, isn't it?" Rey poked him in the shoulder. "Watching the battle."

"You're right," Finn craned his head around to get a better view of the figures lying in the sand in front of them. "All I can see is you and Padmé… Oh! There's me. My backpack's crushing me. Phew, even from here I can feel how heavy that thing was."

"Anakin and I must be further ahead then," Obi-Wan mused, tapping his chin. "Good, so we have an approximate location down."

"But still no Qui-Gon or Darth Maul," Rey chewed her bottom lip anxiously.

As though on cue, two lightsaber blades materialized out of the buzzing sand, cutting violent red and blue arcs of light through the haze.

"There they are," Padmé exclaimed. "Let's go. We'll need a better vantage point if we want to see just what's going on."

"Oh no. That's Darth Maul and _me_ , not Qui-Gon!" Rey suddenly realized, clapping her hands over her mouth in dismay. "The blue lightsaber is _mine!_ "

"So the ship wasn't just taking off, it was actually... _leaving?"_ Finn's eyes widened in alarm.

"We've lost more time than I thought with that fiasco inside the _Falcon_ ," Obi-Wan jumped to his feet. The others scrambled after him as he half-ran, half-crawled towards the crossing blades.

Blaster fire ripped over their heads as Finn and Padme's past selves opened fire, and they ducked down hurriedly. Rey winced as they came close enough to witness the fight for the second time, and could only think about how _weird_ it was to be _watching_ it, now as a complete observer. She couldn't help but notice how _slow_ her past self seemed now, against the fearsome warrior that was Darth Maul, and she found herself willing the girl to _step up, fight back, attack him head on._ It was only now that she realized she had mostly been on the defensive for the entire battle, and from her vantage point, the look of ill-disguised fear plastered across her past self's face was painfully clear.

"This is terrifying," Finn breathed, voicing her exact thoughts out loud. "What do we do? It's not like we can just jump in there and tackle Obi-Wan before he leaps on Darth Maul. Who _knows_ what kind of damage that will do." He pressed his palm against his forehead in agitation. "How are we supposed to do _anything_ without psychologically scarring ourselves for life?!"

"I have an idea," Rey turned to the others sharply. "Stun Obi-Wan before he gets to Maul. Past Finn and Padme's blaster fire should cover for us. Padmé— your blaster has a stun setting, right?"

"Of course," Padmé answered, and pulled the sleek weapon out of its holster quickly. "But I'll need to get at a better angle in order to make it conceivable."

"That won't work," Obi-Wan cut in. "Maul will still be in commission, and he'll still be attacking Rey. Who's going to stop him from killing her?" He grimaced. "Because like it or not, that's exactly what he's going to do."

The color drained away from Rey's face as she processed the exact implications of this revelation, and she swallowed.

"If… if it's going to be a necessary sacrifice…"

"What are you talking about?" Finn cut across her fiercely. "Don't be stupid. You have a blaster too— use it to stun Darth Maul!"

"I can't," Rey whispered. "It's just an NN-14, too simple to have a stun setting."

"We're running out of options," Padmé spoke up urgently. "What about your blaster, Finn?"

"Rey took it during the showdown with Han and Chewie, remember?" Finn groaned and rubbed his face with his hands. "And she left it on the floor of the cargo bay."

"This is all my fault," Rey said weakly. "It's okay. Just stun Obi-Wan."

"And let Maul murder you?" Finn burst out. "Not a chance."

"While we sit here and discuss things, we lose precious time," Obi-Wan cut in once again, drawing their attention to the two new figures getting to their feet just beyond Rey and Maul. "Here come Anakin and I. Rey, give me you blaster." Without waiting for a reply, the Jedi reached over and snatched the weapon out of her holster. "Padmé, take Darth Maul. Don't shoot until I tell you to."

Rey gaped at the man. "Wait— what are you doing?"

"I promised the twins I wouldn't allow us to fail, and I intend to keep my word," Kenobi swiftly flicking off the safety switch on the little NN-14 as he propped it up carefully against his arm, closing one eye as he steadied his aim. There was scarcely time to do much else. Rey bit her lip so hard that the bitter tang of blood burst across her tongue, and squeezed her eyes shut as Obi-Wan's order burst forth through clenched teeth.

"NOW, Padmé!"

Two sharp reports echoed across the desert, one directly after the other, shattering the paralyzing darkness into a thousand pieces. They were almost immediately followed by the dull thud of something heavy hitting the sand. Rey hardly dared to move. To breathe. She was terrified to open her eyes again.

But she did anyway.

The red, double-bladed lightsaber lay where it had fallen just in front of her, halfway buried in the burning sand. A crumpled heap of dark robes lay just behind it— Darth Maul, stone-cold unconscious. She took in a shaky breath and fell back, breathing heavily and feeling a bit dizzy as well.

"Rey!" Finn tripped over the shifting sand to reach her side, hurriedly shoving his blaster back into its holster as he ran. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Rey panted, halfheartedly brushing away his frantic attempt to check for injuries. Suddenly she pulled him into a crushing hug.

"That was way too close," Finn breathed in her ear. "I thought you were a goner."

"Me too," Rey admitted faintly. "But we did it. That's all that matters. _We did it,_ Finn."

"How is this even happening?" Finn whispered back. "How am I still able to remember everything?"

"I don't know," Rey breathed. "But this happened last time too. It should have affected us, but it didn't. Our memories stayed the same. I still remember everything. Even though the others won't."

"Yeah." Finn pulled back quickly as Padmé ran up.

"Are you alright?" the Senator demanded, thrusting out a hand to help Rey to her feet.

"Yes," Rey inhaled deeply. "Thanks."

A low moan cut through the sandy haze, and the three glanced up in the direction of its origin in surprise.

"Obi-Wan?" Padmé's eyes widened in horror as she ran quickly to the man's side.

Rey staggered to her feet as well, the dismay that punched her gut -unlike the shock plastered across her face- far from feigned. The Jedi was curled into a tight, defensive ball, his face twisted in pain.

"What happened?" She dropped down beside the Jedi, a bit breathless.

"He's been shot," Padmé pulled the Jedi over onto his back, revealing the charred patch that blackened the tawny brown of the man's tunic just to the inside of his left shoulder. "Finn or I must have hit him when we were firing earlier. Oh Obi-Wan, I'm so sorry."

"It was probably me," Finn spoke up miserably. "I was totally panicking back there." The look Rey shot him was one of immense gratitude, and she felt a warm surge of affection for her valiant friend.

"Doesn't matter… who it was..." Obi-Wan forced through the tight barrier of his teeth, and opened his sea-green eyes to the torrid sky. He paused a moment to catch his breath, before attempting to pull himself up.

"No, don't move."Padmé ordered, easing him back down. "We've got to get this bound up tightly before you bleed to death."

The Jedi groaned and closed his eyes tightly again. "It was… it was probably a good thing it happened. I lost control of any sort of rationality. I could have killed Maul." He sucked in a sharp breath as Padmé carefully began to pull his tunic away from the wound.

"You're incredibly fortunate the blast missed any vital organs," Padmé murmured, and shook her head as she bent to pull out a roll of sterile bandages from her belt. "That was some lucky random shot."

"It could have been a lot worse," Kenobi pointed out stubbornly. "If I'd killed Darth Maul I could have destroyed everything as we know it. I'd even go as far as to say whomever pulled the trigger did me a favor. Just enough to take me out, but not full-on kill me." He was clearly trying to make Finn feel better by blowing it off as nothing. Even so, his chuckle was mirthless as he settled into a more contemplative silence. "How ironic. For years I've always wished that I'd somehow been able to get to the fellow before he got to my master."

After a moment he opened one eye to address Rey directly. "I suppose we really _dodged a bullet_ there, hm?"

Rey groaned aloud, but only because she was relieved he was well enough at least to make a dumb joke. She suddenly felt an overwhelming rush of immense respect for the man, and resisted the urge to throw her arms around him in a big hug. His alternate self had known exactly what he had been getting into the moment he had pulled that trigger. It was really only because of him that they stood here now, victorious in their quest.

"We need to get back to the ship, where we can get you properly treated." Padmé straightened up and dusted off her hands. "This sandstorm, of course, isn't helping in the slightest."

"What about Darth Maul?" Rey questioned. "What do we do with him? We can't exactly wait here to make sure he wakes up properly."

"We'll have to leave him here," Padmé put her hands on her hips with a frown, "He should regain consciousness soon. We'll need to be far away from here by then, with all of our tracks completely wiped away."

"Well, there's something this sandstorm will actually be good for," Finn pointed out, feeling the need for a bit of optimism.

Rey approached the unconscious Sith cautiously, and nudged the body with her toe before shuddering a bit. She bent down to pick up the red-bladed saber at his side and paused for a moment, before powering it on, testing its weight in her hand. Though it was twice the length of her ordinary one-bladed saber, she could scarcely feel a weight difference. Curiosity getting the better of her, she almost sheepishly began to rotate the weapon in a double figure-8. There was something immensely satisfying in hearing the rhythmic hum of blades on opposite sides of her at the same time. It was with a slight twinge of reluctance that she powered the weapon off again and replaced it on its owner's belt.

"I don't ever remember setting my pistol to stun," Padmé was inspecting her own weapon closely. "But I suppose the setting could have flicked on accidentally while I was firing." She bent to slip the blaster back into its holster with a thoughtful frown.

"That's why you never can trust blasters," Obi-Wan groaned as Finn helped him to his feet, hefting the Jedi's good arm over his shoulders. "They're so... unpredictable. Clumsy. Unciv—argh—" he cut off with a pained wince as Finn accidentally slipped in the shifting sand, bumping into him with an apologetic grimace.

Rey and Padmé took Darth Maul's limp body by either arm, straining to drag the Sith over to his speeder as they hefted him into a sitting position and settled him propped up against its metal side.

Radio static crackled from the Jedi's belt, and Han's voice cut through the noise. "You'd better get the hell over here."

Finn squirmed a bit before he was able to maneuver around enough to unhook the comlink from Obi-Wan's belt. "What's wrong?"

"Everything," the smuggler shot back vaguely. "Hurry up and get back here. It'll be easier to show rather than tell you."

* * *

Luke Skywalker had dealt with plenty of frightening things in his life.

As a small child, he'd managed to survive sand people, bounty hunters, and wild animals alike in the untamed deserts of his home planet of Tatooine. As a teenager, he'd raced (and wrecked) skyhoppers through Beggar's Canyon in death-defying stunts, resulting in several close shaves over the years. As a young adult, he'd found the final destruction of his childhood in the brutal murder of his aunt and uncle. Within those same twenty-four hours, he'd both infiltrated the most powerful and lethal superweapon the galaxy had ever seen, then single-handedly blown the entire thing up.

But this… this was far worse than any of that. There was something about the knowledge that all of that— everything that made Luke Skywalker, well, _Luke Skywalker_ — was nothing, didn't matter, didn't _exist,_ that was far more terrifying than anything the Empire could ever throw at him.

Luke glanced over to catch Leia's eye, and saw that her expression was grim. She too was a mere illusion of herself, a ghost of what might have been.

"How… how is this possible?" he heard Rey whisper. "I thought we _fixed_ this!"

"'Fixed it'? Fixed _what?_ There's nothing left of them to fix! What the hell is happening to them?" Han stabbed a finger back at him and Leia. "Did you guys screw something up while you were out?"

"I thought… I thought we'd fixed it." Rey's voice was hollow. Deflated.

"We did," Finn said firmly, and folded his arms across his chest with a frown. "This has got to be something else."

Something was wrong. Luke could feel it in his gut. There was a piece of the puzzle that was missing. Something they had all overlooked. Only— where and _what_ was it?

Or rather— _who_ was it? And just like that, it clicked.

"Where's Anakin?"

The others turned to look at him, expressions of shock and confusion on their faces.

Rey looked stupefied. "I don't… he's not… he's not here?"

"You're right," Obi-Wan spoke up slowly, and tapped his chin as his brow furrowed. "I haven't seen him since… well, I don't know the last time I saw him." His face was a smooth, deadly calm, but Luke observed a muscle twitch ever so slightly in the man's jawline.

"You mean _no one's_ seen him?" Finn asked in disbelief. "How could he just… disappear?" Suddenly his eyes widened. "You don't think he's… gone?"

"That's impossible," Rey spluttered. "What could we have possibly done to erase him from history? Everything else returned to normal!"

"You don't think he has anything to do with… this?" Leia held up a ghostly hand. The others went quiet as this was carefully digested.

"I… I think I know where he is." Padmé spoke up in soft voice, and everyone turned to her expectantly. She dropped her face into her hands with a moan. "Oh, Anakin… I was afraid this might happen, but I didn't think..." Obi-Wan reached forward to place a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she grabbed it and held on tightly as she lifted her head to look him directly in the eye.

"Obi-Wan… he's gone after his mother."

* * *

 **Whew. Told you it'd be a big one. If this were a book, I might call this the end of Part One. Luke, Anakin, and the crew's _real_ problems have really only just begun. *evil Palpatine cackle* HEHehehehehhh... (I swear I will RUIN Disney if they bring him back in Episode 9.)**

 **On that note, I hope to see you next update! As always, have a great day, and of course- May the Force be with you.**

 **-Alaskan Appaloosa :)**


	22. Chapter 22

Anakin Skywalker got to his feet carefully, brushing away the sand that clung to his clothing as he picked himself up from the ground. He bent over to rub through his hair vigorously, grimacing as grit continued to shake out in unholy amounts. Shifting the backpack slung over his shoulder into a more comfortable position, he shoved his hands into his pockets as he began to make his way towards the small moisture farm in the distance, its outline etched out in shadow against the star-studded sky.

As he approached the homestead, he gave the igloo-like main entrance and its accompanying security door a mere cursory glance, instead leaping straight down into the courtyard surrounding the household's moisture vaporators. Glancing around at the confusing array of various doors and lofts around the courtyard, he attempted to recall in detail his memory of the place before. Closing his eyes, he reached out with the Force, sensing the multiple life forms inside the homestead and the peaceful state in which they slept. His footsteps made little sound as he slipped through the dwelling, his cloak rustling softly against the back of his legs as he paused every few moments to listen again. In his dark apparel he could have been a mere shadow, flitting from one end of the homestead to the next.

As he stepped through the patterned orange and black of the weatherbeaten archway of the dining area, his face darkened; this entire place only held bad memories for him. Memories that he now suppressed, the last remnants of a terrible nightmare that he only wished to forget.

 _Soon, I will be able to. Soon it will all be nothing more than that— a bad dream._

A light flicked on in the kitchen area behind him, and he froze. There was a pause, then the unmistakable pad of soft footsteps. The hum of machinery started up soon afterwards, followed by gurgling liquid. He turned carefully, but the quiet rustling in the kitchen continued without notice.

Silently he crept up to the doorway, catching his breath as he came upon the figure busying herself with warming up a pot of blue liquid on the stove. She had used to do this quite often in their own small dwelling while they had lived in the slave quarters in Mos Espa, and as a child he had always found a deep comfort in hearing her in the other room. Though she had always done her best not to disturb him, he had always lain wide awake in bed, listening to her move about, wondering what had been troubling her that day. At times, he had faked a nightmare just so that he could get up to be with her. He ha always hated for her to be alone, and the sight of him had always seemed to cause her to relax.

Now he hesitated, his body stiffened and immobilized with emotion. The last time he had seen her, she had been beaten almost unrecognizable by the Tusken Raiders, surviving their cruelties only just long enough to die in his arms. Seeing her here, _alive_ _and_ _well,_ struck him deeply, and he suddenly felt breathless. His lips, clumsy with numbness, struggled to move.

"Mom?"

She spun, and he perceived the ensuing situation even before it happened. As though in slow motion he saw the glass of blue milk leave her hands and he lunged forward, catching it before it hit the ground. Even as he exhaled a sigh of relief, his senses issued a split-second warning and he spun around, shooting out his free hand to catch the end of the rifle butt just before it smashed into the side of his head.

"Mom, wait— it's me, Anakin!"

The figure on the other end of the rifle froze and didn't move.

"It's okay. It's me. It's Anakin." Gently he pried the weapon out of her grip, quickly setting it on the counter beside him before stepping back, displaying weaponless palms.

"Ani?" Her voice croaked through the darkness, roughened with sleep and confusion. He saw her shake her head as she stumbled backwards, pressing against the wall. "I must be dreaming."

"You're not dreaming, Mom." He reached out and grabbed her hands, squeezing them tightly for proof. "I'm really here."

Her eyes, wide with disbelief, darted about his face for what seemed like an eternity. Then with a small gasp she pulled him forward, hugging him to herself tightly. He was unable to prevent the burning tears that sprang forth, and he struggled to blink them back with difficulty. She was here, and she was _alive_.

"I can't believe it." Shmi Skywalker pulled away to look her son in the eyes. Her hands lifted to catch his face, her fingers pushing the hair back away from his forehead before running down to trace his jawline. Her voice trembled. "It really is you… My sweet baby boy… you're all grown up. Look at you. You're taller than I am now."

He nodded mutely as he squeezed her hand again, so tightly that it was almost painful. He choked the words out. "Listen Mom, I've got to get you out of here. I'll explain later. For now just do everything I tell you to, okay?"

She blinked and took a step back. "What?"

"Please Mom," Anakin shot a glance behind him before turning back to her, willing her to read the urgency in his eyes. "Please just trust me. Put on something warm, quickly. We've got to get out of here before anyone else wakes up."

"Anakin, what's going on?" Shmi demanded as he grabbed her arm, pulling her out into the courtyard. He saw her eyes dart towards the household sleeping lofts, her face furrowed into a worried frown.

Of course. Cliegg Lars. The man who had rescued her from slavery when Anakin had been unable to. Anakin knew he shouldn't feel the tiny fang of bitterness that gnawed at him whenever he thought of the man. He'd been quite kind when Anakin had met him before, and from what Anakin had gathered, he had loved and cared for his mother dearly. In fact, he'd been everything Anakin _should_ have been to Shmi. But he had been unable to save her from the Tusken Raiders. And Anakin wasn't going to let it be that way again.

He'd been given a second chance. He wasn't about to screw it up this time.

"You've just got to trust me, Mom," he begged. "They'll be fine, I swear. Please. Just hurry."

With one last glance back she did as she was told. He waited impatiently while she struggled to pull on a thick shawl, then decided on impulse to run back into the kitchen and grab the rifle from the counter. Her eyes widened in shock as he then proceeded to lift her into the air with the Force, setting her gently outside of the courtyard pit before quickly jumping out after her. Taking her hand again, he led her after him as he broke into a run.

As they made their way quickly across the flatlands beyond the boundaries of the homestead, Anakin sucked in a shaky breath. He'd done it. There was no turning back now. He felt her hand in his and squeezed it firmly, hoping that nothing concerning what was truly going on inside would be transmitted through the confident gesture.

 _This was the right choice._

He finally let his breath out. Closed off his mind. Shut down his emotions. Blocked out everything else. His mother was here, and she was alive. She was all that mattered now. Her safety was the only thing that meant anything to him anymore.

 _Don't worry, Mom. I won't let anything happen to you again._

 _I promise._

* * *

Obi-Wan opened his eyes, sliding back against the wall to slump into the seat beside him. "I can't reach him."

"So he really has gone." Rey rubbed her face wearily. "Either that or he's blocked you off somehow."

"I should have known," Padmé shook her head as she paced the ship. "I… I did know. It was there the whole time. He'd been distracted the entire mission. I… I did feel something was off, I just... didn't want to think about the possibility that he would actually try to… _do_ something."

"How could this have happened?" Obi-Wan groaned. "How could any of us not have noticed his absence until _now?"_ He pressed his palms against his forehead, throwing his head back in frustration. "Agh! I of all people should have sensed something was wrong. I could have stopped him somehow!"

"We've been busy," Rey slumped into the seating around the dejarik board listlessly. "I was so caught up with making sure we fulfilled the mission that I never once thought anything felt off with any of _us_."

"The kid's insane." Han clenched his fists, speaking through gritted teeth. "We've got to go after him." Poe nodded in agreement, his jaw set as he stepped forward angrily.

"It's no use, you two." Leia spoke up, her voice heavy with sudden exhaustion. "If he's put this much effort into keeping his intentions a secret, he doesn't mean for us to ever find him." She lifted her head to address the rest of them. "We must face it. He's gone."

"That's not… no. _No_." Obi-Wan pressed an unsteady hand in her direction, as though attempting to push back her words. "He doesn't know what he's done. We must find him. We _must_ bring him back."

"No." Leia's usually warm brown eyes were now hardened stone. "He knows _exactly_ what he's done. He had a choice, Obi-Wan. And he made his choice. He _left_." Her gaze raked across the room. "He abandoned you. He abandoned Padmé. He abandoned _all of us_."

"He hasn't abandoned us," Padmé stepped forward fiercely. "Not Anakin. He would never do that. All he's ever wanted is to have been able to save his mother. How can we now possibly stand in the way of him taking that extra chance he was never given before?"

"You still don't get it, do you?" Leia tilted her head to one side, her arms folded across her chest as she contemplated the other woman carefully. She pointed a rigid forefinger to herself, then to Luke, her voice rising in volume ever so slightly. "Tell me. What do you think this is? Time-travel sickness? A side effect of dehydration?" She shook her head, her tone more pitying than angry. "Believe what you like. And believe me, I wish to everything out there that you're right. But to me, it's all pointing to one thing— he's not coming back." Her eyes refused to leave Padmé's. "You love him, but you're blinded by that love. You can't see the evidence even when it stands directly in front of you. _Talking_ to you, at this very moment."

Padmé's brown eyes widened. "W...what do you mean…?"

"You're Luke's mother," Leia said impatiently, "So look at your son. Just look at him. And you'll see."

"What?" Leia turned to Luke staring at her with his mouth hung slightly open, clear blue eyes wide.

"Oh please." Leia rolled her eyes. "Were you the only one who _didn't_ notice? It couldn't have been more obvious than if they had simply decided to come out and broadcast it to the world— the two are so wild for one another it's cringeworthy. Don't tell me you met your father in person and never _once_ wondered who your mother was, what she was like." At her friend's telltale flush, her eyes narrowed into catlike slits. "Good grief."

Luke's mouth moved, forming words without sound. His gaze met Padmé's and the two shared a split-second look of the same terror before both ducked away quickly. Glancing around the ship desperate to look anywhere but those deep chocolate eyes, Luke's gaze landed instead on another pair of warm brown. Leia's. He settled on her wavering, ghostlike form for a moment before shooting a lightning glance down at his own, lifting his head again in time to watch the corner of her mouth quirk upwards as his eyes expanded with silent realization.

"We're siblings, yes." Leia's smile was deceptively calm. "Finally got there, did you? Was it really that difficult to figure out?" She tried to laugh but ended up choking on it instead. She swallowed the hard lump in her throat before continuing. "Anakin Skywalker is your father. Anakin Skywalker disappears. The both of us do so as well. It wasn't too hard to connect the dots." The princess tilted her head to one side, a queer smile stretching her lips dangerously taut. "It's no use denying it anymore. Anakin… Anakin is my…." She choked on the word, as though it were poison on her tongue. "...mine too."

"Say it." Padmé growled softly. "Go on. Say it. 'Anakin Skywalker is my father'."

The two women sized each other up tensely. "Alright then." Leia's lip curled into a snarl, and she spat the words. "Anakin Skywalker is my… my _father_."

Luke ran a hand through his tousled blonde hair, stumbling a bit with his words. "I can't believe…"

"Look at us, Luke." Leia's voice was hard. "You don't have to look very closely. And you'll see why he's not coming back."

Luke's eyes dropped to his hands, his ethereal, non-existent fingers. Then he raised his gaze to meet Leia's once again. Crystalline blue met warm brown. "You're... right." He rubbed his face wearily. "Of course. You're always right."

Suddenly he threw his hands down, kicking at the ground. "Blast! Is there not any way we can contact him? No way at all?"

"Even if he weren't in a completely different time period?" Obi-Wan closed his eyes tightly. "He's closed himself off from everything. It's as Leia said. He doesn't _want_ to be found." A different kind of pain —one greater than the one that was currently chewing like hell through his shoulder— hit him like a blow, and he staggered a bit where he stood.

"We can't blame him for any of this," Padmé continued to look defiant. "If anything, it's all of our faults for such a lack of communication. _My_ fault for seeing his hurt and brushing it off as nothing." She began to pace again. "If only I had said something. If only he wouldn't keep these things from me! We could have worked _something_ out."

"Don't kid yourself." Leia's voice was curt. "He's made his choice. And in doing so, he's decided all our fates for us. There's nothing more we can do now."

"Time," Poe stepped forward with a protesting growl, fingering his rifle.

Han nodded in agreement with the pilot. "We can go after him. We've got to stop him. The kid's destroying everything, whether he's trying to or not."

"And in doing so outright ensure his mother's death?" Finn cut in. "How could we possibly do something like that?" He ran his hands down his face wearily. "I couldn't. I couldn't do it."

"She's already _dead!_ " Han shot back. "Look kid, I don't like it any more than you do. But her time had already come. He can't now just run off and do something like this to all of us. In going back to save his mother, he's sacrificed _everything else!_ "

"Do you still not understand?" Leia snapped, suddenly turning on the smuggler. "It won't do us any good to try and stop him by force. It's not the actual act of saving his mother that's put us in this position. It's his very _choice_ to leave everything else behind. He knows exactly what he's doing to the future. He knows we'll try to stop him. Saving his mother means abandoning his old past." Her eyes met Padmé's and held them steadily. "And that means everything and every _one_ in it as well."

Padmé glared back. "No. He wouldn't do that. Not Anakin. Not intentionally. He hasn't thought this through. He doesn't know what it's doing to us. We have to find him and bring him back."

To her frustration, however, the others all ducked their heads and wouldn't meet her eye. She clenched her fists and stepped back, breathing hard.

"He can't do this," Han continued to pace in circles, growling under his breath. "He has no right to do this to the rest of us."

Chewbacca threw his head back in a mournful howl.

* * *

Poe paced the floor incessantly, while Rey and Finn slouched in the bench behind the dejarik board. Leia had gone off somewhere to be alone for a bit. Luke sat in the corner with his knees drawn against his chest, eyes fixated on the wall. Han and Chewbacca were in the cockpit, mindlessly fiddling with the _Falcon_ 's dead controls.

Padmé, on the other hand, had busied herself with more thoroughly treating Obi-Wan's wound. It was good for her hands to be occupied. It prevented her mind from things she didn't want to process at the moment. It was just too much right now. She couldn't handle it.

Instead, she flinched robotically along with the Jedi as she carefully swabbed the burn with an antiseptic spray. She forced her gaze to remain on the blackened skin, the inflamed, bulging veins spidering around the borders of the wound in a web of purple and red. As a young woman well-exposed to the brutalities of warfare, these images were nothing new. But she refused to allow herself to become accustomed to it. It was that part of her that _felt_ , felt the others' pain, that she refused to let go. Because that was the only way to end a war. To realize the cost.

She felt someone glance over her shoulder as she worked, and heard a sharp intake of breath from Rey beside her. "I… I guess I never realized how much damage a single blaster bolt could do to someone," the girl admitted in a small voice.

"They're called blasters for a reason," Padmé said dully.

Obi-Wan —also eager for something to do— suddenly smiled, his eyes lighting up with the excitement of one who enjoyed explaining things to people, even graphic details of their own injuries. "An energy bolt not only penetrates whatever it comes in contact with, but also exposes it to an intense blast of heat. If that object just so happens to be a living creature, the enormous amount of energy contained in the bolt alone is hot enough to not only burn the flesh, but evaporate blood itself, causing any blood vessels around the contact area to quite literally explode."

Finn, having come up behind them, grimaced. "That's… um… gross."

Obi-Wan chuckled a bit at his obvious disgust. "Anakin always found it quite fascinating."

Padmé flinched subconsciously at the words. He had used past-tense. As though he had already accepted that… No. She wasn't going to think about that right now. For now, she was focused on winding the bloodstained bandages around her friend's shoulder. As she ensured his arm fit securely in the sling she had fashioned, he met her gaze.

"Thank you."

She nodded without answering, and ducked her head to the side, blinking rapidly.

"It's going to be alright." he said softly.

"I know," Padmé lied. "Really. It's just… I don't know what to do. I… feel so helpless. There isn't a clear answer to any of this." She bit her lip as she turned away again.

Obi-Wan smiled sadly up at her. "I know."

The Jedi reached out for her hand, gripping it tightly. She returned the pressure with a ferocity that surprised him.

"There's nothing more we can do," His voice was soft.

"We can hope," Padmé answered firmly. "And we can trust him to do what he knows is right." She took in a deep breath. "Whatever that may be."

Obi-Wan said nothing, only dropped his head with a strange, broken smile.

* * *

 **Hope this chapter wasn't too angsty for you all. I've really enjoyed exploring the weird familial relationship between Luke, Leia, Anakin, and Padme, since neither Luke nor Leia knew Padme while she was alive (unless you count Leia's _superb_ infantile memory, but we're not opening _that_ can of worms). Also, Anakin and Leia just seem destined to clash, even without any of his Darth Vader-ness thrown in there; they're quite similar in many ways and are both extremely stubborn, opinionated characters. It's been very interesting indeed to dig into the crazy family dynamics between them all.**


	23. Chapter 23

The first few minutes of the journey were spent in total silence. They walked, guided over the sand by faint moonlight, shivering a bit as the temperature continued to drop without the twin suns to warm the landscape. Then, just as Anakin was beginning to find the silence unbearable, Shmi began to talk.

Most of the conversation was almost required as a parent; she wanted to know how life as a Jedi was suiting him, whether they were feeding him enough, whether he had made any friends. A part of him wanted to feel disgruntled over her constant bombardment of childish questions he didn't necessarily wish to answer. She seemed to have lapsed easily enough back into their old routine at the supper table in their Mos Espa slave quarters, as though having forgotten that he had grown nearly ten years since then.

And yet her calm, gentle voice soothed him, and he reveled in its familiarity. If he forgot himself for a moment, he could almost imagine he was still that same wide-eyed, sandy-haired, dirt-smudged little boy she had once known. He spoke willingly enough about his adventures, especially the beginnings of the Clone Wars; where he had been and what he had seen, who he had battled alongside. She was horrified when he recounted his duel with Dooku and the acquisition of his artificial arm, but once he had assured her enough that he really didn't care, that he actually found it stronger in some ways than his real arm, she agreed that it was quite well-made and rather suited him.

It was when she asked about Qui-Gon Jinn that he began to tense slightly; in doing so she had arrived at a series of subjects he had hoped to avoid, even though he knew full well that they were, in fact, inevitable. He began a bit reluctantly, informing her of the Jedi Master's death on Naboo soon after they had left her on Tatooine. She fell silent for a while, for she had developed a great respect for the man. Then she glanced up again to ask who Anakin had been apprenticed to now that Master Jinn was gone. She had never met Obi-Wan, and Anakin had a difficult time describing the Jedi to his mother without revealing to her that he really didn't want to talk about his master.

She wanted to know about Padmé. Anakin tensed further, assuring his mother cautiously that she was alive and well, and that yes, they had crossed paths, once or twice. He could tell that Shmi was hardly satisfied with any of his vague answers, but she finally stopped pressing him, dropping her head to simply walk along in silence.

Suddenly she stopped in her tracks, turning to look him directly in the eye.

"Anakin. I want to know what we're running from."

Anakin thought for a moment. How much could he tell her? How much did she need to know? Certainly not everything.

Finally, he cleared his throat. "I had a… dream. A vision of sorts. You were in danger. I came to prevent that from happening."

"What sort of danger?" Shmi tilted her head to one side.

"It doesn't matter." Anakin kept his eyes to the ground. "What matters now is that you're safe. I won't let anything happen to you ever again."

Shmi was silent for a moment. "Ani, you can't prevent bad things from happening."

"This time I can," Anakin replied, and his fist curled convulsively at his side. "This time I have the power to change things. Anything bad that happens, I can fix it."

"Is this something they taught you at the Jedi Temple?" His mother was genuinely curious.

"No." Anakin answered truthfully.

They walked in silence once again, listening to the eerie howl of the wind as it whipped the desert sand into spiraling plumes.

"There's a sandstorm coming," Shmi murmured, concerned.

Anakin just grunted in reply, but he squinted upwards, his own brows converging into a frown. He dug his toe into the sand in frustration, sending it flying to join the rest of the airborne debris.

Boot connected with metal, a dull pang sounding beneath his feet. Startled, he stopped. A ship lay nearly buried completely in sand, the only portion of it still visible to the surface world the smallest patch of filthy white hull at his toe.

The mound of sand made a gentle slope and he slid down to the bottom, where more bits of buried ship were visible. Studying the enormous mound of sand in front of him for a moment, he then dropped to his knees, and began to dig.

The first few handfuls of excavation revealed more scuffed, worn metal. He hit it with a closed fist, listening to the faint ring that continued to reverberate beneath him. Shifting to a new position further to the right, he dug again, again finding metal. Around and around he went, tracing the round outside of the ship before he crouched a final time. This time, sand continued to spill away from his hole for what seemed like an eternity before his hand suddenly broke through, meeting empty air. Digging frantically now, he was able to shove away the crusted, sedentary layers of sand until he was entirely through, standing inside the lopsided metal skeleton of the Millennium Falcon.

Shmi waited patiently behind him as he stared. Lazy clouds of dustlike sand caught in the moonlight stabbing through the newly-opened entry hatch, glittering in ghostly patches like some spirit long dead— perhaps that of the ship itself. Similarly his gaze drifted through the ship's interior, settling on the computer consoles, the crates in the cargo bay, the dejarik board in the lounge area. All frozen, untouched, eerily peaceful. Everything perfectly preserved, as though its occupants had left mere moments ago. And indeed he might have believed so but for the telltale lines of age worn into the dirty white walls, etched by both sand and time in a mournful chronicle of an abandonment long ago. He closed his fists tightly to suppress their trembling.

Yes. Suppress. Push it away. Bury it. Bury it all. Just as the ship had been buried. Forgotten.

Anakin finally turned his head to look back at his mother, his voice hoarse. "We can stay here for the night."

* * *

As Luke entered the cargo bay he found Leia sitting in the corner, in a small alcove behind several large crates. She was immediately aware of his presence, silently pulling her knees up towards her chest so that he could squeeze in between the boxes with her without opening her eyes.

He slid back against the wall, settling himself in a comfortable position facing her, his hands in his lap. "We need to talk."

Leia nodded impatiently without looking up. She hesitated for a moment before speaking, opening her eyes. "Look. I'm sorry if anything I said back there came out too harsh to you. I was just meaning to state the facts." She pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear absentmindedly. "I wasn't thinking about the fact that it was probably an awful lot to be dumping on you all at once."

"Yeah." Luke laughed softly. "It's a lot to think about." He sucked in a breath, letting it out in a heavy sigh. "But I really just want to know what you think about all this."

"Which part?" Leia's lip lifted in a wry smile before falling once again into her usual pensive expression.

Luke flexed his luminescent blue fingers, searching for words. "It's… weird, you know? It's kind of like those dreams where you're standing outside of everything and just… watching. You're not doing anything— you can't. You're just… there."

Leia nodded without answering.

Luke hesitated for a moment, fiddling with the ends of his sleeves. Finally he looked up. "Why do you hate him so much?"

"Why do I hate him?" Leia straightened, shifting her position. "Because of what he's doing to us. Because he doesn't care. He made a choice, and decided everything for us, without even consulting any of us once about the possible consequences."

"He didn't tell anyone what he was feeling because he thought we would try and stop him," Luke dropped his gaze to a small dent in the floor by his feet.

"Yes, but he didn't even give us that chance." Leia's brown eyes flashed. "Instead he just snuck off alone— like a coward."

"Would you have tried to stop him?" Luke lifted his head, meeting his twin's gaze seriously. "Would you have tried to stop him from saving his mother?"

"That's… that's not the point." Leia turned away, setting her jaw. "He didn't even give us that chance. He didn't try to ask for help, or advice, or anything. He just… left." She met his gaze again, brown eyes darkened by smouldering coals. "Not only has he destroyed the two of us, but he's hurt Padmé by shutting her out. He's hurt her, Luke. He's hurt her very deeply."

"He was just trying to protect her." Luke closed his eyes and rubbed his face wearily. "He didn't want to burden her any more than she already is."

"That's not how it works." Leia snapped. "When you love someone, you're not supposed to keep things from them. You can't just give your everything for them, and then never learn how to take what is given back to you. She wants to help him. She wants to share that burden. She wants to be there for him, just as he's there for her. When he keeps pushing her away, shutting her out, I can… feel how much it hurts her. It…" The princess took in a shaky breath. "It hurts me, to see her like this."

She glanced up, and found her brother concentrating very hard. Forehead wrinkled into a contortion of dogged effort, he had his eyes closed, two fingers pressed against his temples resolutely.

"Luke, what are you doing." Leia sighed.

"I've got to tell him." Luke didn't open his eyes. "So maybe he doesn't care about me or you. But if he could only see what he's doing to her, maybe he'll listen. I know he hasn't thought this through. He loves her, Leia. He would never do something like this to her on purpose."

"Maybe he hasn't thought this through," Leia began slowly, "But maybe he doesn't want to think this through. Maybe he just wants to forget all about it. Pretend like it never existed in the first place. Then he could bury any sense of guilt he has just as he's buried the rest of us."

"That's why I have to tell him," Luke said stubbornly. "He's smothering himself, Leia. I have to make him wake up."

"You know I've tried that already. Far too many times." The two glanced up as Obi-Wan sat down on the crate beside them, having come up on their conversation unnoticed. "Something's unquestionably blocking our Force bond. Whether it's the constrictions of Time or… him… I… I don't know." He rubbed his face with his good hand wearily. "Only one thing's for sure, and that is that I can't reach him."

"He and I have a connection, remember?" Luke only scrunched his face up further. "I know it's still there. I've just got to find it again."

"He and Obi-Wan have a connection!" Leia got to her feet, stepping out from behind the crates. "If Obi-Wan can't reach him, how are you supposed to? You've only known him for little more than a day!" She tapped a thumbnail to her teeth in agitation before speaking again. "Besides, I don't even think it's possible to contact someone ten years into the future, even through the Force."

Han strode up then with the rest of the crew, and nodded. "Leia's right. The kid's gone. The only way we'd be able to get the kid's attention is in the time period itself—and behind the muzzle of my laser pistol."

Padmé remained silent, fiddling with the japor snippet around her neck absently. She closed her eyes, apparently thinking hard.

"Threats of Anakin's bodily harm are going to get us nowhere," Obi-Wan bristled slightly at Han's comment.

Poe growled something under his breath in response.

"Well, we can sit around here and mope about things, or we can actually do something about the kid," Han placed his hands on his weapons belt defiantly. "I think I've made quite clear my position on the matter."

"We can't just hunt him down and force him to come back with us!" Finn protested.

"That could mean a confrontation." Leia folded her arms across her chest as she contemplated the group seriously. "And it could be hostile. You know Anakin. He doesn't bow easily."

"Maybe that's not such a bad thing," Han growled. "Maybe some of us here would like to give the kid a good piece of our minds."

"No. We would only be there to talk." Rey shot the smuggler a steely glare. She glanced up at the others, her rigid gaze wavering a bit in its certainty. "I would only want to talk to him. To… to ask him… you know. Why."

"What good would that do?" Leia sighed. "He's only going to run away from us again— if we even managed to find him in the first place." She shot a swift glance in Padmé's direction before ducking away again. "It will no doubt end in nothing but pain… for all of us."

"So what else are we supposed to do?" Han exclaimed. "We can't just sit around here forever. Eventually we'll have to make a choice on something."

"We can't just storm in there and stop him from rescuing his mother, either!" Luke opened his eyes, jumping up to slide a hand through his hair in frustration. "We'd have to catch him before he gets to her and then… detain him somehow. That… that wouldn't work."

"Why not?" Han demanded. "How can you even stand up for him, anyway? His cowardice is the entire reason you and Leia are in the mess you're in the first place. Don't you get it? You two could simply disappear completely at any moment!" The smuggler threw his hands into the air to drop them at his sides, breathing heavily. "Then you would really be gone. Forever."

Luke's already translucent face paled further, but he set his jaw stubbornly. "I still think there's a better solution to all of this than forcing him to return to us." He dropped his head, thinking hard.

"We could go back in time and try to convince him to stay," Rey suggested in a small voice. "In our time, I mean. Before he leaves."

"We keep traveling back in time to fix everything… but when do we decide when enough is enough when tampering with the past? When do we decide to simply... leave it?" Obi-Wan spoke up wearily, shaking his head. "Would we ever? Would we continue to travel back every single time, to fix everything we decided was a mistake? What if… what if I decided I want to go back and change… the fact that my master Qui-Gon Jinn was killed as well?" He swallowed visibly and lifted his head to meet his companions' gazes.

Luke ducked his head, biting his bottom lip. "Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Biggs. Ben… Ben Kenobi."

"My… my parents." Rey whispered.

Poe clenched his fists, staring down at his feet. Every senseless loss of lives because of the First Order.

"Maybe if I'd defected sooner..." Finn put in quietly.

Chewie chuffed softly, and Han set his jaw at the Wookiee's suggestion. "Yeah. Her."

"Alderaan." Leia's gaze hardened.

Padmé said nothing but finally brought her head up, her chin lifted regally.

"All I am saying is… when would it end? When should it end?" Obi-Wan dropped his face into his good hand, clenching his jaw. "Is Anakin... right in his decision? Are the rest of us simply being foolish in not taking this enormous opportunity that has been presented to us? Are we truly better off given the chance to control our own destinies entirely to our wishes?"

The others were silent.

Engines suddenly thrummed overhead, and the companions glanced up in bewilderment.

"Lando," Finn breathed, a glimmer of hope lighting in his eyes. He spun to dart out the entry ramp, Rey hot on his heels. After a moment, the others turned to run after the two.

"What the…" Han began as the ship's hatch began to open and the familiar purple-and-gold-clad figure trotted out into the sand. "Lando? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," the man retorted, hurrying down the gangplank to survey the lot of them. "I'm just zipping over this area, minding my own business, and then I see the Millennium Falcon beached like a bird with a broken wing. What in the name of Bespin have you done to my ship?"

"Your ship?" Han repeated. "Now listen here bud, you lost her to me fair and—"

"I keep forgetting you guys won't remember meeting earlier, because it technically never happened," Rey cut the smuggler off impatiently. "It's a long story. But Lando'll be able to help us. He knows a lot more about Time than any of us do."

Suddenly Lando straightened, the confusion in his eyes turning to realization before darkening. "So it was you! You're the ones responsible!"

"Responsible for what, exactly?" Rey's heart sank. The man looked absolutely furious.

"The blasted stormtroopers in my backyard!" Lando snapped. "They're everywhere. Cloud City is simply crawling with them. My people can hardly breathe with those stupid metal snowmen clunking around everywhere. In fact, I barely made it out of there, they've got the place locked down so tightly." He folded his arms across his chest. "I had better have a very good explanation for all this."

Rey shared a mournful look with Finn. "And we have a lot to talk to you about. Why don't you come inside?"

"No." Lando shook his head, wagging an infuriated forefinger around the circle. "No. You're going to figure out what you've done wrong. And by stars you're going to fix it."

"How are we supposed to know just exactly what needs to be fixed if we don't even know what's going on ourselves?" Finn put a hand to his forehead with a moan.

Lando jerked his head towards the shuttle behind him fiercely. "You'll see for yourself. You're all coming back to Bespin with me."


End file.
